Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1361 Lingnan Storm
Since the Yongjia Rebellion, a large number of well-dressed aristocrats have crossed the Yangtze River to the south, which has greatly promoted the development of the Jiangdong region. However, the Lingnan region is also a relatively remote area in Jiangdong, and its development is still very backward and in a very marginalized situation, and various rebellions often occur.

The famous battle of Chen Baxian, the first ruler of the Southern Chen Dynasty, was to suppress the rebellion of Li Ben, the leader of the Jiaozhou tribe. Without such achievements, Chen Baxian would have been just an ordinary official in the prefecture. When the Hou Jing Rebellion broke out, even if he had the ambition to serve the emperor, he had no ability to carry it out and could only go with the flow.

After leaving Lingnan, Chen Baxian entered a wider world and successfully created an era of his own in Jiangdong.

However, the Lingnan region did not fall into silence because of Chen Baxian's departure. It is still bustling and has been in the midst of fierce personnel turmoil in the past few years. The forces that dominate Lingnan alone have been refreshed several times.

At the beginning, when Hou Jing's Rebellion broke out, Guangzhou Governor Yuan Jingzhong raised an army and occupied the state to respond to Hou Jing's rebellion. However, Chen Baxian, who was the Protector General of Xijiang at the time and had not yet left Lingnan, gathered a crowd of people and led his troops to kill him, and then invited Xiao Bo, a member of the Southern Liang royal family, to settle in Guangzhou.

Xiao Bo did not "let down" Chen Baxian's trust. His subsequent performance was also at the average level of the overall level and integrity of the Southern Liang royal family. He first did not allow Chen Baxian to lead his troops to leave Lingnan and go north to defend the king, and colluded with Lingnan tyrants to obstruct him, but in the end Chen Baxian broke through the obstruction.

After failing to intercept Chen Baxian, Xiao Bo began his separatist struggle in Lingnan. After the Hou Jing Rebellion was quelled, Emperor Xiao Yi of Liang in Jiangling wanted to replace Xiao Bo with his trusted confidant Wang Lin as the governor of Guangzhou because Xiao Bo was far away and difficult to control. However, Jiangling fell before Wang Lin arrived in Guangzhou, so the matter naturally came to nothing and Xiao Bo was able to continue to dominate Guangzhou.

Later, Chen Baxian replaced Wang Sengbian and took control of Jiangdong. Xiao Bo repeatedly sent troops out of Lingbiao to attack Chen Baxian, but after some trouble, he was finally defeated by Chen Baxian.

After Xiao Bo was defeated, Ouyang Ying, then the governor of Hengzhou, rose to prominence. Ouyang Ying had helped Chen Baxian break through Xiao Bo's blockade when he was marching out of Lingnan, and they had a good relationship. Moreover, Ouyang Ying had been an official in Lingnan for a long time and had a great reputation there. Therefore, after defeating Xiao Bo, Chen Baxian appointed Ouyang Ying as the governor of Guangzhou and the commander-in-chief of all military affairs in Lingnan. From then on, the Ouyang family began to dominate Lingnan.

After the establishment of the Southern Chen Dynasty, Chen Baxian focused his main energy on dealing with the issues between the two major regimes in Jiangbei. He mainly used the method of control and appeasement internally. Unless the person was extremely vicious and refused to obey his orders, he would not directly send troops to kill him.

After Chen Baxian's death, the Southern Chen court also had many personnel changes, and its control over the local areas became weaker and weaker. Even Chen Qian, the King of Linchuan, who was a member of the royal family, established his own regime in Wuzhong and openly defied the court, which naturally further undermined the court's prestige. Lingnan was originally located in a remote area, and at this time, the emperor was far away, and the local powerful forces acted on their own and ignored the court's orders.

During this process, the power of Ouyang Wei's family continued to grow. In addition to Ouyang Wei himself who was stationed in Guangzhou, his two younger brothers Ouyang Sheng and Ouyang Sui served as the governor of Jiaozhou and Hengzhou respectively. Almost all the major cities in Lingnan were under the control of his family, and their influence reached its peak for a time.

Although Ouyang Wei's clan is powerful in Lingnan, they are not the only one in power in this area. The forces in other places should not be underestimated. They may not be able to compete with them, but they can still provide a check and balance.

There are many Li and Liao tribes in the Lingnan region. In addition to Li Ben, the Li and Liao chieftain who had previously caused chaos in Jiaozhou, the forces of other chieftains should not be underestimated.

These Li and Liao tribes were scattered among mountains, rivers, and plains, making it extremely difficult for the government to unify and control them. They could only obey their respective leaders, and these chieftains also used this to control local order. Many local governors in Lingnan had to rely on them to govern the people in their territory. Some chieftains were simply governors of prefectures and counties officially appointed by the court, and each of them dominated their own area.

Among these chieftains, the more famous ones include Feng Pu, the governor of Gaozhou, Chen Fozhi, the governor of Luozhou, and Ning Kui, the governor of Anzhou. Each of them has tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people under their command, and is the most powerful chieftain in their territory.

These people also have another characteristic. Although they are the great chiefs who command many Li and Liao tribes, their families are not native to Lingnan Li and Liao, but are clans from the Central Plains that migrated from the north to the south at different times. Chen Fozhi's ancestors were from Yingchuan, Ning Kui's ancestral home was Jizhou, and Feng Pu's family was even more famous, being the royal family of Northern Yan during the Sixteen Kingdoms period.

Most of these people came from lower-class aristocratic families in the north or fallen royal families. During the process of migrating south, they lacked strength and influence, and were excluded from the core areas of Jiangdong such as the Three Wus where overseas Chinese lived. They had no choice but to settle in the more remote Lingnan area to make a living.

In order to gain a foothold in this area, they chose to unite with the local Li Liao tribes, which had not yet formed a basic social organization and system, to guide them to civilization and organize these tribes into their own private music. The scattered Li Liao tribes had a certain degree of organization, and these people who migrated south also transformed themselves into powerful chieftains who dominated one side.

Among them, the Feng family is the most typical. During the Southern Liang Dynasty, Feng Rong, who was the governor of Luozhou at the time, asked his son Feng Bao, the prefect of Gaoliang, to marry Xian, a great chief of the Li Liao in the area. She was the famous Lady Xian.

The marriage between the Feng and Xian clans had a far-reaching impact, and even affected the local situation in Lingnan. The Feng clan successfully established itself and grew stronger in Lingnan by leveraging the Xian clan's deep influence and appeal among the Li and Liao tribes in Lingnan, while the Xian clan also leveraged the Feng clan's political resources to leap from a local chieftain to a local upstart, becoming an object of respect and wooing by the imperial court.

The combination of these two tribes was also a microcosm of the gradual civilization and integration of the Lingnan barbarians into the mainstream of the world at that time. Although the process was full of utilitarian considerations, the result was undoubtedly a model of the integration of the Han and barbarians in Lingnan, and laid a solid personnel foundation for the further development of Lingnan in the future.

The official forces in Lingnan, represented by the Ouyang Xi clan, together with the local Li clan chieftains and other local forces, constituted the personnel environment in Lingnan. Although this place has long been on the edge of the evolution of the world's general trend, it also has its own rules and order, sometimes conforming to the general trend, and sometimes deviating from the mainstream and developing independently.

A previous disastrous defeat on the south bank of the Qiantang River destroyed all the troops that Hou Andu had painstakingly organized in Kuaiji, and he had no choice but to flee in embarrassment.

Hou Andu did not have any other choices like Chen Qian. As the target of the Tang army's attack, once his power disappeared, he would be destined to become a piece of fat meat in the mouths of others. Therefore, he could only choose to flee as far away as possible from Lingnan, which was the target of the Tang army and was relatively slow to sense the development of the general situation.

He was originally from Shixing, Lingnan. Now that he was at the end of his rope, he naturally had to flee to his hometown first, hoping to regain some power as soon as possible. The Hou family was a powerful family in Shixing. Most of the family members had followed Hou Andu to the north, but some of them stayed in their hometown. As Hou Andu's fame and status under Chen Baxian became more and more prominent, these family members who stayed in the hometown also took the opportunity to control a lot of power in the village.

Because there was no further delay on the way, Hou Andu and his party rode straight to Shixing after evacuating Kuaiji. Therefore, before the news of his defeat reached Lingnan, he returned to his hometown first.

Although the villagers were somewhat surprised that Hou Andu suddenly returned home, they were not aware of the latest developments in the north. Therefore, in their eyes, Hou Andu was still the majestic and arrogant minister and general, rather than a defeated dog.

Hou Andu was also happy to let the villagers continue to maintain this misunderstanding. After returning home, he did not make a big fuss, but immediately gathered the villagers and tribesmen and obtained another two or three thousand soldiers.

As the Hou clan became more active, Ouyang Sui, the governor of Hengzhou and the chief official of the state, naturally became alert and immediately sent state officials to the village to interrogate them.

Hou Andu, who had initially recovered his strength at this time, was no longer as cautious and careful as before. He directly told the state officials the whole story and said that the Tang army would soon advance into Lingnan and the village would be doomed to disaster. However, if the state lord Ouyang Sui was willing to cooperate with him, he could lead his troops to resist the Tang army and protect the village from harm.

"Has the situation in Jiangdong become so bad? The Tang army is so powerful. Hou Andu has always been arrogant and rebellious, but he was beaten into a panic by the Tang army!"

After hearing the report from the state official, Ouyang Sui, the governor of the prefecture, was also shocked.

He naturally did not believe Hou Andu's lies. If Hou Andu really had the ability to resist the Tang army, why would he flee back home in such a miserable state? However, Hou Andu had already gathered considerable power in the village, so he did not dare to underestimate him or punish him rashly. Instead, he quickly reported the matter to his brother Ouyang Wei, who was stationed in Guangzhou.

But unfortunately, Ouyang Xi was now ill and bedridden, so most state affairs were left to his son Ouyang He.

Ouyang He was young and full of vigor. He had long been a leader in Lingnan. He had little respect for people like Hou Andu who had been famous for a long time but had retreated back home. After receiving the message from his uncle, he was certainly shocked by the powerful Tang army's southward advance, but he was not very interested in Hou Andu. He just snorted coldly, "Even if a powerful enemy invades, the future of Lingnan will be decided by my father and me. How can we allow Hou Andu, a defeated general, to make decisions! It is already rude for him to come in without asking for permission, and he even expects me to give him armor and horses to help him gain power and wealth. It is really ridiculous! Tell my uncle to capture this criminal and send him to Guangzhou, and then discuss the invasion of the Tang army."

After receiving the message from his nephew, Ouyang Sui felt very embarrassed for a while. He knew that Hou Andu was fierce and difficult to control, so he did not dare to underestimate him just because he had retreated back to his hometown. Moreover, he was now powerful in the village and could not be easily captured. If he wanted to capture him, he should not attack rashly, but better to use his wits to defeat him.

So after thinking about it, Ouyang Sui sent another batch of gifts to Hou Andu and invited him to the prefecture to discuss fighting against the Tang army. In order to make Hou Andu unable to resist the temptation, he also said that as long as Hou Andu had a mature and specific strategy to deal with the enemy, he would hand over the prefecture army to Hou Andu to lead the fight.

"He is so arrogant at first but respectful later. He must have ulterior motives. If I go there, I will fall into his trap!"

Hou Andu was naturally not a fool. After receiving the message, he immediately realized that Ouyang Sui had bad intentions and would not take the bait easily.

However, his current strength is still relatively weak. If he wants to continue to grow and develop, he urgently needs the support of the state government. But now Ouyang Sui is obviously hostile to him, so naturally he doesn't have to expect any cooperation from the other party.

However, the Tang army could invade Lingnan at any time, and Hou Andu could not just sit there and wait. He pretended to accept Ouyang Sui's invitation, but suddenly broke the contract on the agreed day, and only asked his servant to go and tell him that he was ill and could not go, but if Ouyang Sui condescended to visit him, he would definitely make a bed for him.

Ouyang Sui had already arranged troops in the prefecture to capture Hou Andu, but he was stood up. The Hou clan was also quite powerful in Hengzhou, and he was worried that if the matter was delayed, something unexpected might happen, so he simply mobilized troops and headed straight for Hou Andu's hometown garden.

At this time, Hou Andu had already led his trusted men to sneak outside the city. After Ouyang Sui led his troops out of the city, he immediately led them into the city and took control of the city. When Ouyang Sui hurriedly led his troops back after receiving the news, he was attacked from both sides by Hou Andu's troops. After a battle, Ouyang Sui was defeated and was captured alive by Hou Andu.

"The northern barbarians have already invaded Jiangdong and are about to invade my hometown. I am worried about the safety of my hometown, so I led my troops back to help defend it. Unexpectedly, the governor of the state is narrow-minded and afraid that I will seize his power, so he directly led his troops to attack without considering the safety of the hometown at all. The governor is unkind and deserves to be killed!"

After arresting Ouyang Sui, Hou Andu showed no mercy and beheaded him in public, taking the power of the state for himself. He arranged for his trusted clansmen to gather soldiers in the state, and he led the elite troops to the south. When Ouyang He received the news from Guangzhou and hurriedly led his troops to attack, he was ambushed by Hou Andu, and the Guangzhou division was defeated. Ouyang He could only lead the remaining troops to retreat to Guangzhou in a hurry.

The Ouyang clan had dominated Lingnan for a long time, but unexpectedly they were defeated repeatedly by Hou Andu who returned home in a hurry. This also made Hou Andu's reputation in Lingnan increase again, and many powerful people led their tribes to come and submit to him.

Hou Andu naturally accepted all comers and tried his best to expand his own power before the arrival of the Tang army. Chen Qian did not take things too far and sent people to send his family members who were abducted in Shanyin to Lingnan. Hou Andu then sent slaves to Gaozhou to ask for marriage for his son from the Feng family, a wealthy family in Gaozhou, hoping to get these Li Liao chieftains onto his chariot.