Northern Dynasties

After a night of killing, Chen Baxian finally entered Jiankangtaicheng, which was dilapidated but still symbolized the seat of the highest power of the Southern Dynasty, under the obedience of the soldiers.

However, it is far from the time to celebrate victory. The next test will only be more severe. As Wang Sengbian said, once he dies, the government and the public will be in chaos.

Nowadays, Nanliang is already torn apart internally, with only Wang Sengbian holding it together like a thin layer of gauze. Now that even such a meager layer of connection has been lost, internal divisions are inevitable. In addition, there are also enemies from the outside who are watching eagerly, and they will not sit back and watch such drastic changes in Nanliang without doing anything.

In short, the next situation is still very dangerous. If Chen Baxian cannot solve it smoothly and properly one by one, then he will be the last traitor in Nanliang and be nailed to the pillar of shame forever!

Because of this, Chen Baxian must find a way to attract all the forces he can. After confirming that all the immediate family members of Wang Sengbian in the city had been killed, he began to order the soldiers not to kill at will and disrupt the order of 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, many civil and military officials were also given preferential treatment.

Cheng Lingxi, the former governor of Qingzhou, stationed troops in Zhanggongzhou. After learning that there had been changes in Stone City, he immediately led his troops to cross the river to rescue him. He frequently fought with Zhou Wenyu who arrived later in the west of Stone City. Because of the hasty reinforcements, the army was not in good shape, and the result was repeated defeats.

Just when Zhou Wenyu wanted to take advantage of the victory and attack Cheng Lingxi and kill them all on the river bank, Chen Baxian stopped him and immediately sent an envoy to Cheng Lingxi's army to emphasize that he was only raising the army for justice and justice. It was not for personal grudges, but Wang Sengbian and his family were the only ones who wanted to be killed, and they tried to persuade Cheng Lingxi to surrender.

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

Although Chen Baxian had always disagreed with the establishment of Xiao Yuanming as emperor, he did not take the opportunity to kill him. Instead, he sent troops to invite Xiao Yuanming out of the inner garden and temporarily placed him in Taicheng. Xiao Fangzhi, the crown prince and son of Emperor Liang Yuan, welcomed him back to the inner garden.

Chen Baxian's restrained and courteous behavior had a comforting effect on the Jiankang people who had suffered sudden changes and were increasingly panicking. Moreover, there were many people in the imperial court who criticized Xiao Yuanming as king. After knowing that Chen Baxian came to the court to bring order to the chaos, they all began to support Chen Baxian in their hearts.

Afterwards, Chen Baxian summoned all the officials in Taicheng to reveal the bodies of Wang Sengbian and his son to the public. He then issued a proclamation, denounced Wang Sengbian for manipulating the imperial court and acting rebelliously. He also repeatedly expressed to the officials and officials the purpose of this attack. Only Wang Seng defended his father and son as brothers, and the rest of the pro-party officials were not guilty of any abuse!

After initially stabilizing the situation in the city, Chen Baxian asked Xiao Yuanming, who had moved out of the inner garden, to abdicate, and then sent his cronies to escort him out of Taicheng and return to his official residence in the city to guard him closely. Immediately, Chen Baxian led a hundred civil and military officials to persuade Xiao Fangzhi to join him, and decided to hold the enthronement ceremony two days later.

After confirming his righteous status as King Qin of the court, Chen Baxian began to arrange other affairs.

First of all, the first point is to send an envoy to inform the Northern Qi Dynasty that he did not enter the court to make enemies with the Northern Qi Dynasty, but because Wang Sengbian had the intention to usurp the country, so he wanted to kill him. As for the covenant between the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Southern Liang Dynasty, , Nanliang will still abide by it, still profess vassalage to Northern Qi, and become a vassal.

Although the interaction with Northern Qi was an important reason why Chen Baxian and Wang Sengbian turned against each other and broke up, 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 just because of his temporary mood, causing massive trouble to his country. Justifiable reasons for intrusion.

As for Hefei in the Western Wei Dynasty, Chen Baxian also sent an envoy to surrender. Of course, it was not to ask for alliance and peace. After all, the two sides had a hatred of killing the emperor and destroying the country. If Chen Baxian wanted to ask for surrender from the Western Wei Dynasty as soon as he came to power, then he would inevitably have to do so too. If you fall into a moral dilemma like Wang Sengbian's, not only will you receive no substantial help, but you will be criticized by dissidents.

The reason for this change was to request the return of the body of Emperor Yuan. In fact, it was to briefly notify the Western Wei Dynasty of the changes in Nanliang. On the one hand, Chen Baxian was not an old member of the Yuan Emperor, and he also conspired with the Jingzhou military government. After taking power, when the situation stabilized, he would not have the moral burden of confronting the Western Wei Dynasty to the end, and there was room for the two of them to seek cooperation to resist the Qi Dynasty.

On the other hand, it is hoped that the Western Wei Dynasty will not misjudge the internal situation of Nanliang because of the complicated situation changes in Nanliang, and continue to launch attacks, aiming to tell the other side that the changes here are orderly and there is no advantage to be taken advantage of!

After setting a general tone for the external attitude, it is time to target the internal situation. Naturally, the civil and military officials in the imperial court had to work hard to win over each other, and they took advantage of the opportunity of deposing the king to award titles and titles, so that everyone would recognize this new situation.

What is more complicated than the personnel affairs in the court is the entanglement of local forces, especially the direct power of Wang Sengbian.

Now Wang Sengbian's younger brother Wang Sengzhi is the prefect of Wu County, Wang Sengmin is the prefect of Yuzhang, his son Wang Yan is the prefect of Nanqiao County, and his son-in-law Du Gong is the prefect of Wuxing. Each of them also has a large number of armed forces. It is precisely because Wang Sengbian's direct armed forces are distributed in all directions that the defense in the capital is empty and the branches are strong and the trunk is weak, which allows Chen Baxian to attack successfully. 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 Jing, Xiang, Heng, Ying, and Jiangzhou. 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 their 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 against 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 it 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. Chen Qian, who secretly returned to Chen's Township in the Great Wall, temporarily resisted Du Gong's offensive, but 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 troops 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, I'm afraid we'll all die in one battle. Now that my family is in ruins and the country is in chaos, and Hefei is so close, it's better to go and ask Alang's old master, King Taiyuan, to borrow troops to put an end to the chaos and take revenge!"