Shortly after Er Zhurong returned to Jinyang, Xing Gao, a refugee from Hebei who had fled to Shandong, rebelled because he could not bear the oppression of the local aristocratic family. Because he was born in the Hejian Xing family, a wealthy family in Hebei, and once served as the chief registrar in Youzhou, he had great prestige among the Hebei people who were exiled in Shandong. Soon he had hundreds of thousands of people under his command.
As soon as Xing Gao rebelled, Ge Rong of Hebei led an army to surround Yecheng (now Linzhang, Hebei).
Yecheng is the state capital of Xiangzhou (today's Anyang City in northern Henan and Linzhang County in Hebei Province), and it is also a civilized city in the world. As a result, Yecheng was besieged. The entire court of the Northern Wei Dynasty was shocked and all officials were horrified.
Upon hearing the news that Yecheng was besieged, Er Zhurong immediately went to court and led his army to attack Ge Rong.
Emperor Xiaozhuang Yuan Ziyou immediately agreed to Er Zhurong's request without any hesitation. To him, Ge Rong and Er Zhurong were like dogs biting dogs, and it would be better if they both died. This way he doesn't have to be manipulated by others and doesn't have to worry all day long.
After getting Yuan Ziyou's permission, Er Zhurong asked his nephew Er Zhu Tianguang to stay at his base camp in Jinyang, while he personally led 7,000 elite Qihu cavalry to attack Ge Rong.
At this time, Ge Rong had won consecutive battles and had hundreds of thousands of troops. He was very arrogant and did not take Er Zhurong in his eyes at all. In his opinion, Er Zhurong's success today is entirely due to luck and he did not meet an opponent as powerful as him.
He ordered hundreds of thousands of troops to form a dumpling-shaped formation north of Yecheng to attack Erzhu Rong.
As for Er Zhurong, he saw through Ge Rong's characteristics that although there were many people, people were not unified, so he sent Gao Huan to sneak into Ge Rong's army to instigate rebellion.
As mentioned before, Gao Huan was from Huaishuo Town, one of the six towns. He also briefly served in Ge Rong's army and was quite familiar with Ge Rong's men. He himself was bold, careful, and good at communication, so he completed the task very successfully and instigated the rebellion of several generals and more than 10,000 people to surrender to Er Zhurong.
Later, Er Zhurong ordered the troops to be divided into teams of several hundred people, raising sand and dust in the mountains, beating gongs and drums, and creating momentum, so that Ge Rong could not tell how many people Er Zhurong had.
Finally, Er Zhurong came up with a winning move: he ordered the troops not to use swords and guns, but to use sticks instead.
He encouraged his soldiers and said: "Although Ge Rong's army is large in number, its military discipline is not strict and its combat effectiveness is not high. As for sticks, although their lethality is not high, their killing range is large enough and their deterrence is large enough. Therefore, using sticks can cause damage." Disperse them within a wide area and break the fighting spirit of Ge Rong's army, and then concentrate our forces to attack Ge Rong's central army to capture the thief and the king."
After preparing everything, Er Zhurong took Hou Jing as the vanguard and led his troops to attack from the front. He led his troops to sneak around behind Ge Rong's army and attack Hou Jing from both sides.
Hou Jing led his army to attack from the front first, and then Er Zhurong also led his army to attack from behind Ge Rong's army. Er Zhurong took the lead and led the Qihu troops to rush into Ge Rong's rear army. Sticks rained down on Ge Rong's army, making them dizzy. The two armies attacked from front to back and quickly dispersed their formation.
Before Ge Rong could realize what was going on, Er Zhurong's cavalry rushed in front of him and captured him alive on the spot.
The old master was really beaten to death with sticks. Ge Rong, who was traveling across Hebei Province, was captured alive by Er Zhurong in one battle.
Hundreds of thousands of the defeated army were leaderless, so they had no choice but to surrender to Er Zhurong and became Er Zhurong's prisoners. These prisoners, who were mainly demoted from six towns, did not have much other experience, but they were familiar with the experience of rebellion. Therefore, properly settling them has become Er Zhurong's first priority.
Fortunately, Er Zhurong solved this problem perfectly.
He dismissed the hundreds of thousands of prisoners on the spot and let them go wherever they pleased. As soon as the prisoners heard that there was such a good thing, they left separately. When they walked out of Baili Land, they found that Er Zhurong's people had already been waiting for them on the only way.
In this way, the prisoners were dispersed by Er Zhurong's people to all directions in Bing and Si prefectures, without causing any panic or another rebellion.
Er Zhurong also sent people to select a group of talents among the prisoners and arranged them into his army, including Yuwentai and Duguxin. Since the Yuwen family and the Heba family were family friends, Yuwentai quickly joined He Batayue's staff. With his low-key and high-profile style of doing things, he was highly regarded by He Batayue and became his confidant.
After doing this, Er Zhurong sent Ge Rong to Luoyang and handed him over to Emperor Xiaozhuang Yuan Ziyou.
When Yuan Ziyou saw Ge Rong, he was furious. He thought Ge Rong could have a 50-50 fight with Er Zhurong, but he didn't expect that Er Zhurong would take care of him in the first battle. I didn’t say anything, what is this kind of waste left for? Kill it!
After killing Ge Rong, Yuan Ziyou quickly made Er Zhurong the prime minister and commander of the military outside Hebei Province, and commended Er Zhurong.
After receiving the reward, Er Zhurong led his army back to Jinyang and went hunting. As for Wanqi Chounu in the northwest and Xing Gao in Shandong, Er Zhurong has not taken it seriously yet.
Not a few days after the happy days, Er Zhurong received bad news that Nanliang had sent troops to attack.
The Northern Wei Dynasty clan's Beihai Wang Yuanhao was originally ordered to deal with the rebels in the six towns. After hearing about the tragedy of the "Heyin Incident", he was horrified when faced with the unfavorable situation of the rebels in front and Er Zhurong behind. Yuan Hao, who didn't want to be a lamb to be slaughtered, simply made up his mind and went south to Nanliang, asking Emperor Wu of Liang Xiao Yan to send troops to help him quell the civil strife and help him proclaim himself emperor.
Xiao Yan was quite moved, but still hesitant. If this thing comes true, then Nanliang will be equivalent to supporting a puppet emperor in the Northern Wei Dynasty. From now on, Xiao Yan will not have the final say in the world; if it doesn't happen, Nanliang will suffer huge losses!
After hesitating for several months, Xiao Yan made up his mind: do it! If it succeeds, it goes without saying that the harvest will be great; if it fails, it will be "picking the cheap and picking the peaches" anyway. As long as the investment is small, it will not matter even if all the troops heading north are lost.
As soon as he said it, Xiao Yan immediately made Yuan Hao the king of Wei, and his trusted general Chen Qingzhi was the leading general. He led his troops to escort Yuan Hao back to the Northern Wei Dynasty to help him seize the throne.
In October 528 AD, Yuan Hao and Chen Qingzhi led the army to the north. The main military force of this army is divided into two parts: one is the absolute main force, the 7,000 white-robed troops under Chen Qingzhi; and the other is Yuan Hao's army. Most of the members of this army were captured by Nanliang in the Northern Wei Dynasty. of military and civilians. They missed their hometown and were eager to return to their hometown, so they joined Yuan Hao's army one after another.
Yang Zhong is one of them. However, Yang Zhong not only wants to go home, he also wants to take this opportunity to make meritorious deeds on the battlefield and realize his ambitions.
In the first battle, Chen Qingzhi easily captured Zhicheng (now Linhuan Town, Suixi County, Huaibei City, Anhui Province) and stationed troops there, waiting for the opportunity.
A few months later, the opportunity Chen Qingzhi had been waiting for finally arrived.
The rebellion in Shandong became more and more intense, and more and more people participated in the rebellion. Seeing that the situation was deteriorating, the Northern Wei Dynasty appointed Yuan Tianmu as the commander-in-chief and led the army to attack Xing Gao. While waiting for the return of the army, they hunted rabbits and killed Yuan Hao and Chen Qingzhi together.
In order to capture Xing Gao in one fell swoop, Yuan Tianmu deployed most of the troops in the Central Plains region, leaving the Central Plains region empty of troops.
Of course, such an excellent fighter plane could not be let go. Chen Qingzhi, who had stayed in Qi City for several months, continued to lead his army northward.
Something magical happened. Under the command of Chen Qingzhi, the Northern Expeditionary Army led by Yuan Hao and Chen Qingzhi first captured Yingcheng, and then easily defeated the Northern Wei general Qiu Daqian and conquered the Liang Kingdom.
The impatient Yuan Hao couldn't wait to ascend the throne in Liang and proclaimed himself emperor before he arrived in Luoyang. He changed his title to "Xiaoji" and named Chen Qingzhi as envoy Chijie, general Zhenbei, protector of the army, and commander-in-chief of the former army.
Chen Qingzhi did not withdraw his troops, but continued to escort Yuan Hao towards Luoyang according to the predetermined plan. He led his army to conquer Kaocheng and captured Yuan Huiye, king of Jiyin, who came to ask for Qiu Daqian's aid. Then he led his army all the way to the west to attack the city and build the stronghold. It can be said that "when he meets the gods, he kills the gods, and when he meets the Buddha, he kills the Buddha." They reached the important town of Xingyang (today's Xingyang, Henan Province) with overwhelming force.
Just when Chen Qingzhi was preparing to attack Xingyang, the spies came with the news that Yuan Tianmu had finished taking care of Xing Gao and was leading the counter-rebellion army back to Xingyang. His forward was not far from Xingyang.
The miracle continued. Faced with the possibility of being attacked from two sides, Chen Qingzhi decisively led the Northern Expeditionary Army with high morale to capture Xingyang first.
At this time, Yuan Tianmu had just led his army to Xingyang City. However, after days of running around, Yuan Tianmu's army was very tired, their morale was greatly reduced, and their combat capabilities were greatly reduced.
The keen Chen Qingzhi discovered this, and when Yuan Tianmu's army was not stable and exhausted, he sent troops to attack Yuan Tianmu, routing Yuan Tianmu's army to a complete defeat, and then struck while the iron was hot and led his army to capture Hulao Pass. , entered Luoyang.
Seeing this, many people feel familiar.
That's right! This is the widely circulated and popular story of Chen Qingzhi, the famous Nanliang general: "Famous teachers and generals should not keep themselves in prison, and thousands of troops should avoid white robes." Unexpectedly, Yang Zhong was also one of the participants in this major historical event.
Yang Zhong made a lot of contributions in this war. After entering Luoyang, he was appointed as General Zhige by Yuan Hao and became an officer of the Imperial Guard under Yuan Hao.
Maybe because he didn't have the emperor's order, Yuan Hao had not been emperor for long before Er Zhurong led his army into Luoyang and overthrew him from the throne.
Yuan Hao was defeated and captured, and Yang Zhong also became a prisoner of the Northern Wei army. The White Robe Army under Chen Qingzhi encountered a flash flood during their retreat and was wiped out. The only lucky one was Chen Qingzhi, who disguised himself as a monk and ran back to Nanliang.
After becoming a prisoner, Yang Zhong was spotted by Erzhu Rong's younger brother Erzhu Dulu because of his tall and mighty figure, outstanding appearance, and superb martial arts. He "fished" him out of the prisoner camp and held him in his hands. He became a commander underneath.
After regaining Luoyang, Er Zhurong was promoted to a higher rank due to his meritorious service. He was named "General Tianzhu", and his fiefdoms also reached 200,000 households. This title can be said to be unprecedented, but it cannot be said to be unprecedented, because later Hou Jing received an even more powerful title - General of the Universe.
Er Zhurong did not stay too much in Luoyang. He led his army back to his hometown of Jinyang.
At this time, Er Zhurong was only 36 years old, in his prime and full of high spirits!
However, there are still two discordant voices that make all his achievements seem imperfect - Hanlou in Youzhou and Wanqi Chounu in Guanzhong.
After Ge Rong's death, his remnant party Hanlou rose up again in Youzhou in October 528 AD to resist the Northern Wei Dynasty; Wanqi Chounu, who had already proclaimed himself emperor, was also constantly expanding his sphere of influence in the northwest region.
To deal with these two people, Er Zhurong was not prepared to take action on his own.
Persimmon picked the weak ones first, and Er Zhurong first listed the weaker Han Lou as the first target to deal with.
If the difficulty level of dealing with Ge Rong can be considered as hell level, then dealing with Han Lou can only be considered as bronze level.
He only sent his fierce general, Governor Hou Yuan, to pacify Hanlou with only 700 troops.
In the first month of 530 AD, after a new year, Er Zhurong, who had his hands free, decided to take action against the Wanqi Chou slaves and sent the military guard general He Bayue to lead his army.
Of course He Bayue was very confident in himself, but he was worried that he would be in trouble if he defeated Guanzhong and shocked the master with his great achievements, forcing Er Zhurong to attack him.
So he played a trick and asked his second brother He Basheng to make a suggestion to Er Zhurong on his behalf. He asked the Er Zhu family to take charge, and he, He Bayue, could be the deputy commander and help from the side.
Er Zhurong happily accepted this suggestion and appointed his nephew Er Zhu Tianguang as the hussar general, and He Bayue and Hou Mo Chen Yue as the left and right governors to lead the army on the expedition.
The three men led their troops to win consecutive battles and put down the rebellion of Wanqi Chounu with overwhelming force. Wanqi Chounu and the rebel general Xiao Baoyin were captured alive and sent to Luoyang.
The fate of the two men was not much better. Wanqi Chounu was beheaded in public, while Xiao Baoyin was sentenced to death. (Now it seems that the year and year of Wanqi Chounu’s “mythical beast” is indeed correct. The “mythical beast” and “mythical beast” just have their heads in different places!)
Due to his contribution in pacifying the Wanqi Chou slaves, Er Zhurong was named Shizhong, Yitong Sansi, and governor of Yongzhou (the seat is now Xi'an, Shaanxi Province). He Bayue was named the Chariot and Cavalry General, Jingzhou (the seat is now Gansu Province). Jingchuan) governor, Hou Mo Chen Yue was named the governor of Shanzhou (now Qinghai and Ningxia).
During this battle, Gao Huan's "Huaishuo Gang" competed with him, and the "Wuchuan Gang", a small team belonging to He Bayue, was also initially formed. Among them, there are five famous ones, namely:
Kou Luo, who is older, senior, stable in character, and has the air of an elder, was the general who conquered the north at that time;
Li Hu, who was loyal to justice and spared wealth, was good at riding and shooting, and was the general of the Wei at that time;
Zhao Gui, a man of great martial arts, chivalrous and courageous, was the general of Zhenbei at that time;
Hou Mo and Chen Chong, the youngest, taciturn but extremely brave, served as General Anbei at the time;
The last one is Yu Wentai. As He Bayue's confidant and favorite general, he was named the General of the Western Conquest due to his merits and was responsible for the affairs of Yuanzhou (acting as the governor of Yuanzhou and governing today's Guyuan, Ningxia).
Because the five of them were born in Wuchuan Town, they were collectively known as the "Five Tiger Generals of Wuchuan".
At this point, the rebellions in various parts of the Northern Wei Dynasty were almost put down. At this time, Er Zhurong was only 37 years old, and his achievements had reached their peak. Looking at the world, except for Nanliang in the south of the Yangtze River, he has no rivals.
The smug Er Zhurong's restless ambition to be the emperor jumped again.
Sima Zhao knows his heart, and everyone knows it!
Er Zhurong did not hide his desire to be emperor, and the puppet emperor Yuan Ziyou knew this very well. Powerful ministers and emperors are always opposites. Now this powerful minister is no longer willing to be just a powerful minister. He really wants to be an emperor. So where can he, a puppet emperor, go? He can only die!
What's more, Yuan Ziyou's family and brothers were slaughtered in the "Heyin Incident". There was no room for relaxation between him and Er Zhurong, who had old and new hatreds.
Either break out in silence or perish in silence. Yuan Ziyou, who was already full of hatred for Er Zhurong, broke out.
After careful planning, Yuan Ziyou sent someone to lure Er Zhurong to Luoyang and killed him, Yuan Tianmu and others.
After the news of Er Zhurong's death came out, his remaining trusted subordinates in the capital were deeply afraid of following in his footsteps, so they escaped from Luoyang under the leadership of Er Zhu Shilong, who was then Shangshu Pushe, and prepared to return to Jinyang, the base.
However, not long after escaping, Er Zhu Shilong led his army to fight back at the suggestion of his men. The reason is very simple. If they just run away with their tail between their legs, everyone in the world will look down on them, and the foundation built by Er Zhurong will be given to Yuan Ziyou in vain. On the contrary, everyone in the world will see the Er Zhu family. As powerful as he is, Yuan Ziyou can't make any waves.
Erzhu Shilong took Erzhu Dulu as the vanguard and led a thousand people to attack Luoyang first. He led the rest of the people behind and attacked Luoyang with great momentum.
The troops led by Er Zhu Shilong and Zhu Dulu were indeed very brave and good at fighting, and once defeated the Luoyang defenders. Unfortunately, their numbers were too small, and they had to retreat due to heavy casualties and returned to Jinyang.
It happened that Er Zhu Rong's nephew, Er Zhu Zhao, the governor of Fenzhou (now Fenyang, Shanxi), heard that Er Zhu Rong had been killed and returned to Jinyang without stopping and took command of Er Zhu Rong's army.
After Erzhu Shilong and Erzhu Dulu returned to Jinyang, they immediately joined forces with Erzhu Zhao, and appointed Yuan Ye, the governor of Taiyuan and the king of Changguang, as emperor. They immediately sent their troops south to attack Luoyang again.
This time, Yuan Ziyou could no longer escape and was killed by Er Zhu Zhao and others.
As the commander of the army under Erzhu Dulu, Yang Zhong naturally participated in the revenge actions of Erzhu Zhao and others and performed heroically. If you put in the effort, you will be rewarded. The title of Duke of Chang County, the appointment of Governor, and the title of Duke of Xiaohuang County were the rewards given to Yang Zhong by the Erzhu family.
After receiving the reward, Yang Zhong was extremely happy. His struggle and efforts were not in vain. Yang Zhong finally made contributions in the Northern Wei Dynasty. He firmly believes that this is just the beginning, and with his own bravery, he will eventually be able to make his way in this troubled world.
After the revenge act, the Erzhu family had an internal fight over inheriting Erzhu Rong's political legacy. Erzhu Zhao believed that he had contributed the most in the operation, and he should be the heir to take control of the Erzhu family and the Northern Wei Dynasty.
Another nephew of Er Zhurong, Erzhu Tianguang, quit his job. Taking advantage of Erzhu Zhao's efforts to quell the rebellion, he united with Erzhu Shilong to depose the emperor Yuan Ye, installed Wang Yuangong of Guangling as emperor, and took control of the affairs of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
When Erzhu Zhao heard the news, he was so angry that he deposed the emperor without informing him. This put Erzhu Zhao in a bad place. In anger, he wanted to send his army to attack Luoyang. However, under the persuasion of Er Zhu Yanbo, the envoy sent by Er Zhu Shilong and others, they gave up the idea of attacking Luoyang, and reluctantly accepted Er Zhu Yanbo's suggestion to jointly govern the Northern Wei Dynasty.
The Erzhu family who reached reconciliation achieved collective leadership of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Erzhu Shilong served as Shangshuling, and together with his brother Erzhu Yanbo, he sat in Luoyang and took charge of the government affairs; Erzhu Tianguang occupied Guanzhong; Erzhu Rong's other cousin Erzhu Zhongyuan controlled Xuzhou and Yanzhou ((now Jining City, Shandong Province)); Zhu Zhao occupied Bingzhou and Fenzhou.
Although they appear to be docile and harmonious on the surface, no one is convinced by anyone, and their little tricks secretly are still happening one after another. What's even more frightening is that each of them is more greedy and more unethical than the last. As a result, public dissatisfaction boiled over in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and people revolted one after another. Even many of Erzhu Rong's subordinates in the past started revolting against the Erzhu family.
