Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

After a night of killing, Chen Baxian finally entered Jiankang Taicheng, which was in ruins but still symbolized the highest power of the Southern Dynasty, under the support of his soldiers.

However, it was far from the time to celebrate the victory, and the next test would only be more severe. As Wang Sengbian said, once he died, the government and the country would be in chaos.

The Southern Liang was already torn apart, and only tied together by a thin veil like Wang Sengbian. Now even such a thin layer of connection was lost, and internal division was inevitable. In addition, there were enemies outside who were eyeing it covetously, and they would not sit idly by and watch such a drastic change in the Southern Liang.

In short, the next situation was still precarious. If Chen Baxian could not solve them one by one smoothly and properly, then he would be the last traitor of the Southern Liang, and would be nailed to the pillar of shame forever!

Because of this, Chen Baxian had to find a way to win over all the forces that could be won over. After making sure that all the immediate relatives of Wang Sengbian in the city had been killed, he began to order the soldiers not to kill at will and disrupt the order in the city.

In addition to killing Wang Sengbian's family, Chen Baxian was very kind to others. In addition to restraining the soldiers from causing chaos and looting in the city, he also treated the civil and military officials with many favors.

Cheng Lingxi, the former governor of Qingzhou, stationed his troops in Zhanggongzhou. After learning that there was a change in Shitou City, he immediately led his troops to cross the river to rescue, and fought with Zhou Wenyu who came later in the west of Shitou City. Because he came to help in a hurry and his army was not in good shape, he was defeated repeatedly.

Just when Zhou Wenyu wanted to take advantage of the victory and kill Cheng Lingxi and his people on the river bank, Chen Baxian stopped him and immediately sent an envoy to Cheng Lingxi's army to explain that he had started the army only for justice, not for personal grudges, and that he wanted to kill only Wang Sengbian's family, and persuaded Cheng Lingxi to surrender.

Not only these generals, but also the pseudo-emperor Xiao Yuanming in Neiyuan also learned what happened in the city after Chen Baxian entered Taicheng, and hurriedly sent his son Xiao Zhang to Chen Baxian's army to surrender.

Although Chen Baxian had always disagreed with welcoming Xiao Yuanming as emperor, he did not take the opportunity to kill him. Instead, he sent people to invite Xiao Yuanming out of Neiyuan and temporarily placed him in Taicheng, and then went to the Prince's Palace in person to welcome Xiao Fangzhi, the son of Emperor Yuan of Liang, back to Neiyuan.

Chen Baxian's restrained and polite behavior was quite comforting to the people of Jiankang who had suffered a sudden change and were already panicking. Moreover, there were many people in the court who had many complaints about Xiao Yuanming as a monarch. When they knew that Chen Baxian came to the court to restore order, they also supported Chen Baxian in their hearts.

Afterwards, Chen Baxian summoned all officials in Taicheng, displayed the bodies of Wang Sengbian and his son to the public, and then issued a manifesto, denouncing Wang Sengbian for his various crimes of controlling the government and committing perverse acts, and repeatedly told all officials that the sword and the sword were only aimed at Wang Sengbian and his sons and brothers, and the rest of his close friends and old colleagues would not be punished!

After initially stabilizing the situation in the city, Chen Baxian asked Xiao Yuanming, who had moved out of the inner garden, to resign, and then sent his confidants to escort him out of Taicheng and return to the official residence in the city to guard him strictly. Immediately, Chen Baxian led the civil and military officials to present a petition to persuade Xiao Fangzhi to ascend the throne, and determined that the coronation ceremony would be held two days later.

After confirming his own righteousness in entering the court to serve the king, Chen Baxian began to distribute other affairs.

The first point is to send an envoy to inform Northern Qi that he did not come to court to make enemies with Northern Qi, but because Wang Sengbian had the intention of usurping the throne, so he had to be killed. As for the alliance between Northern Qi and Southern Liang, Southern Liang would still abide by it and still pay tribute to Northern Qi and be a vassal.

Although the interaction with Northern Qi was an important reason for the breakup between Chen Baxian and Wang Sengbian, Chen Baxian knew that stabilizing the situation in the country was the most important thing at the moment, and he must not continue to anger Northern Qi because of a momentary temper, giving it a legitimate reason to invade.

As for Hefei on the Western Wei side, Chen Baxian also sent an envoy to report the change, of course not for the purpose of asking for an alliance or peace. After all, the two sides had a hatred of killing the monarch and destroying the country. If Chen Baxian surrendered to Western Wei as soon as he came to power, he would inevitably fall into the moral dilemma of Wang Sengbian. Not only would he not get any substantial help, but he would be attacked by dissidents.

The reason for the change was to request the return of Emperor Yuan's body, but in fact, it was to inform the Western Wei of the changes in the Southern Liang. On the one hand, Chen Baxian was not an old colleague of Emperor Yuan, and he also conspired with the Jingzhou Military Office. After he came to power, when the situation stabilized, he would not have the moral burden to fight against the Western Wei to the end. There was room for cooperation between the two sides to fight against Qi.

On the other hand, it was hoped that the Western Wei would not misjudge the internal situation of the Southern Liang because of the complicated changes in the situation, and then continue to launch attacks, aiming to tell the other side that there was order in the changes here, and there was no advantage to be taken!

After the general tone of the external attitude was determined, it was aimed at the internal. The civil and military officials in the court naturally had to be won over, and they would be awarded official titles and titles by taking the opportunity of abolishing and enthroning the king, so that everyone would recognize such a new situation.

Even more complicated than the personnel in the court was the power struggle in the local area, especially the direct power of Wang Sengbian.

Now Wang Sengbian's brother Wang Sengzhi was the governor of Wujun, Wang Sengyin was the governor of Yuzhang, his son Wang Ban was the governor of Nanqiao, and his son-in-law Du Kan was the governor of Wuxing. They all had a considerable number of armed forces. It was precisely because Wang Sengbian's direct armed forces were distributed in various places that the defense of the capital was empty, the branches were strong but the trunk was weak, and Chen Baxian succeeded in his attack.

These are Wang Sengbian's cronies and die-hard loyalists. There is no possibility of recruiting them to surrender, so they can only be killed. As for other forces, they still focus on appeasement and win over.

For example, Wang Lin, Hou Qi, etc., who are currently fighting endlessly in Jiangzhou, Chen Baxian added Wang Lin to open the government with the three divisions and the governor of Jingzhou, and also oversaw the military affairs of the five states of Jing, Xiang, Heng, Ying, and Jiang. As for Hou Yi's original position as governor of Jiangzhou, he still retained it, and joined the military of Jiabashan, Luling, Nankang, Linchuan and other counties.

As a result, both men's official positions have increased, but in fact the core disputes and conflicts are still in Jiangzhou, and the situation has not improved.

Wang Lin's official promotion was particularly significant. He had been clamoring for a counterattack on Jiangling, and used this as an excuse to repeatedly disobey Wang Sengbian's previous orders. But now Chen Baxian directly appointed him as the governor of Jingzhou, and it became his duty to counterattack Jiangling. As long as Jiangling is captured, he will be the new master of Jiangling! The military governor of Jiangzhou gave him an excuse and reason to stay in Jiangzhou and have a dispute with Hou Yi, so that they continued to fight with each other and had no time to visit the court.

As for Hou Qi, he was not deprived of his duties and made further progress in his supervisory duties, which reflected the court's merciful attitude towards him. He was already in a weak position in the fight with Wang Lin. If he wanted to get more support from the court, he would naturally have to fight for it himself.

As long as these two parties can accept the goodwill released by the court, then the situation of Wang Senzhen, who is now in Yuzhang and sandwiched between the two, will be dangerous. There is no need for the court to send more troops. It is estimated that he will soon Being strangled by both.

Across the river, Qin County also had Xu Sihui's troops. Although Xu Sihui had shown much ill will towards Chen Baxian earlier, in order to stabilize the internal situation, Chen Baxian ignored the old grudges and sent people to persuade Xu Sihui to surrender, and promised that as long as Xu Sihui was willing to obey his orders, According to the imperial court, all the military forces in the north of the Yangtze River should be entrusted, including Guangling, which he had been unable to defend before, and could be handed over to Xu Sihui for garrison, which can be said to be full of sincerity.

After all, Guangling was just a bargaining chip for Chen Baxian. His previous efforts and persistence were all to increase his power. Now that he has taken over the Jiankang court, replacing Wang Sengbian's original position, his most core interest is of course to stabilize the basic base of Sanwu. If he continues to retain heavy troops in Guangling, his control over Jiangnan will undoubtedly be weakened.

Before sending troops to Jingkou, Chen Baxian had secretly sent his nephew Chen Qian back to Wuxing Township to recruit volunteers in order to seduce Du Gong, the prefect of Wuxing. With the existence of Chen Qian, the next strategy against Wuxing will naturally be much more convenient.

Chen Baxian's series of arrangements are not incomplete, but to achieve the desired effect, everyone involved in the current situation needs to give feedback according to the situation he envisioned. Depending on the distance, feedback from all parties is also being transmitted back to Jiankang City.

The first is Xu Sihui of Qin County. Although Chen Baxian proposed sincere surrender conditions, Xu Sihui directly closed the city and defended himself. He even detained the envoys sent by Chen Baxian and did not have any effective communication with Chen Baxian.

Next, Wei Zai who was stationed in Yixing, Wang Sengzhi of Wujun, and Du Gong of Wuxing raised their troops to rebel. Although Chen Qian, who secretly returned to Chen's Township on the Great Wall, temporarily resisted Du Gong's offensive, the situation was also precarious.

However, Wang Sengzhi of Wu County directly led troops to attack Chen Baxian's home base in Jingkou. Now, the remaining soldiers in Jingkou are thousands of weak people led by Chen Baxian's nephew Chen Tanlang, and their combat effectiveness is not strong.

Chen Baxian naturally did not want to seize Jiankang but lose Jingkou. He immediately sent a speedboat eastward to notify Xu Du who was stationed in Guangling, and quickly led his troops south to station in Jingkou to resist Wang Sengzhi.

As for Yixing, Chen Baxian led Zhou Wenyu to attack, while he himself still had to stay in the court for a period of time to stabilize the situation in the court to avoid losing sight of one thing and causing chaos both internally and externally.

Just when Chen Baxian was rushing to dispatch troops and all parties to put out the fire, Wang Huan, the son of Wang Sengbian who was stationed in Dongguan, also learned about the death of his father in the capital. He was heartbroken for a moment and pointed to the east and roared: "Chen's dog thief. , I swear to kill you!”

He was about to raise an army to go east to avenge his father, but the generals of the Wang family who were following him burst into tears and remonstrated: "My lord and others were all killed, which shows that the Chen bandits are tenacious. There are only a few thousand disciples in Alang's army. Even if we go all out, we may lose everything in one battle. Now that our family is in ruins and our country is in chaos, and Hefei is so close, we might as well go to Alang’s old master, King Taiyuan, and use his troops to put an end to the rebellion!”