Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

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. Although its development is still very backward, it is in a very marginalized situation, and various rebellions often occur.

The famous battle of Chen Baxian, the first lord of the Southern Chen Dynasty, was to quell the rebellion of Li Ben, the leader of the Jiaozhou Li Liao. If there were no such achievements, Chen Baxian would be just an ordinary official in the prefecture. When the Hou Jing Rebellion broke out, even if he had the ambition to serve the king, he had no ability to execute it and could only go with the flow.

After leaving Lingnan, Chen Baxian entered a broader 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 bustling. In the past few years, it has been in fierce personnel turmoil. The forces that dominate Lingnan alone have refreshed several waves.

At the beginning, when the Hou Jing Rebellion broke out, Guangzhou Governor Yuan Jingzhong raised troops to respond to Hou Jing's rebellion. He was killed by Chen Baxian, who was the governor of Xijiang at the time and had not yet left Lingnan. He also welcomed Xiao Bo, a member of the Southern Liang clan, to Guangzhou.

Xiao Bo did not "lose" Chen Baxian's trust. His subsequent performance was also at the average level of the overall level and integrity of the Southern Liang clan. 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 was eventually broken through by Chen Baxian.

After failing to intercept Chen Baxian, Xiao Bo began his separatist struggle in Lingnan. After the Hou Jing Rebellion was quelled, Xiao Yi, the Liang Yuan Emperor in Jiangling, wanted to replace Xiao Bo with his confidant Wang Lin as the governor of Guangzhou because Xiao Bo was far away and difficult to control. As a result, Jiangling fell before Wang Lin arrived in Guangzhou, and the matter naturally ended, and Xiao Bo was able to continue to dominate Guangzhou.

After that, Chen Baxian replaced Wang Sengbian and took control of Jiangdong. Xiao Bo repeatedly sent troops to attack Chen Baxian, but after a lot of trouble, he was finally defeated by Chen Baxian.

After Xiao Bo's fall, Ouyang Xi, then the governor of Hengzhou, rose to prominence. Ouyang Xi had helped Chen Baxian break through Xiao Bo's blockade when he was marching out of Lingnan. They had a good relationship with each other, and he had lived in Lingnan as an official for a long time and was very famous there. Therefore, after defeating Xiao Bo, Chen Baxian appointed Ouyang Xi as the governor of Guangzhou and the commander-in-chief of the military forces in Lingnan. From then on, the Ouyang family began to dominate Lingnan.

After the establishment of the Southern Chen Dynasty, Chen Baxian's main energy was still spent on dealing with the problems between the two major regimes in Jiangbei. For the internal affairs, he mainly used control and appeasement. Unless someone was extremely vicious and refused to obey orders, he would not directly send troops to kill him.

After Chen Baxian's death, the Southern Chen court also had many personnel twists and turns, 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, split off from Wuzhong and openly challenged the court, which naturally further hit the court's prestige. Lingnan was originally located in a remote area, and at this time, it was naturally more remote. The local powerful forces acted on their own and ignored the court's orders.

During this process, Ouyang Xi's family continued to grow and develop. In addition to Ouyang Xi himself sitting 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 momentum reached its peak for a while.

Although the Ouyang Xi family was powerful in Lingnan, it was not the only one in this area. Other local forces should not be underestimated. Although they might not be able to compete with them, they still had the power of checks and balances.

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

These Li Liao tribes are distributed among mountains, rivers and swamps. It is extremely difficult for the government to unify and control them. They only obey their respective leaders. These chieftains also control the local order. Many local officials in Lingnan need to rely on them to govern the people in their territory. Some chieftains are simply the governors of prefectures and counties officially appointed by the court, and they dominate their own areas.

Among these chieftains, the more famous ones are Feng Pu, the governor of Gaozhou, Chen Fozhi, the governor of Luozhou, and Ning Kui, the governor of Anzhou. They each have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people, and are the leading overlords in their territories.

These people also have another characteristic. Although they are the great chieftains who command many Li Liao tribes, their families are not native to Lingnan Li 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 inferior noble families or fallen royal families in the north. In the process of migrating southward, they were not strong enough and had no influence, so they were excluded from the core areas of Jiangdong such as Sanwu where the overseas Chinese lived, and had to settle in the more remote Lingnan area to make a living.

In order to gain a foothold in this place, they chose to unite with the local Li Liao tribes that had not yet formed basic social organizations and systems, guide them to be civilized, 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 was the most typical. Feng Rong, the governor of Luozhou during the Southern Liang Dynasty, asked his son Feng Bao, the governor of Gaoliang, to marry Xian, the chief of the Li Liao in the territory, who 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 for a time. With the help of the Xian clan's deep influence and appeal in the Lingnan Li Liao tribe, the Feng clan successfully established itself in Lingnan and grew stronger, while the Xian clan also relied on the Feng clan's political resources to leap from the original local chieftain to a local upstart, becoming the object of the court's attention and wooing.

The combination of the two clans is also a microcosm of the gradual enlightenment 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 Lingnan Han and barbarians, laying 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 Liao 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 it conforms to the general trend, and sometimes it deviates from the mainstream and develops and evolves independently.

A disastrous defeat on the south bank of Qiantang River before wiped out the troops and forces that Hou Andu had worked so hard to organize in Kuaiji, and he could only flee in embarrassment.

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

He was originally a person from Shixing in Lingnan. With no way out, he naturally had to flee to his hometown first, hoping to restore some of his power as soon as possible. The Hou family was a powerful family in Shixing. Most of the clan members had followed Hou Andu to the north before, but some of them stayed in their hometown. Moreover, as Hou Andu's fame and status under Chen Baxian became more and more prominent, these clan members who stayed in the hometown also took the opportunity to control a lot of rural power.

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

Although the villagers were a little surprised that Hou Andu suddenly returned to his hometown, because they were not aware of the latest changes in the situation in the north, in their eyes, Hou Andu was still the majestic and arrogant famous minister and general, not 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 gathered the villagers' tribesmen at the first time, and got another two or three thousand armored soldiers.

As the Hou clan frequently took action, Ouyang Sui, the governor of Hengzhou, who was the chief official in the state, naturally became alert and immediately sent state officials to the village to interrogate.

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 official the whole story and said that the Tang army would soon approach Lingnan, and the village would inevitably suffer a war. 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 been so bad? The Tang army is so powerful, and Hou Andu has always been arrogant and arrogant, but he was beaten by the Tang army and fled in a panic!"

After listening to the report of the state official, Ouyang Sui, the governor, was also shocked.

He naturally did not believe Hou Andu's nonsense. If Hou Andu really had the ability to resist the Tang army, why would he flee back to his hometown in such a panic. But now Hou Andu has gathered considerable power in the village, and he dare not underestimate or punish him rashly, but hurriedly reported the matter to his brother Ouyang Wei who was in Guangzhou.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Xi is now ill and bedridden, and most of the state affairs are handled by his son Ouyang He.

Ouyang He is young and energetic, and has long been a leader in Lingnan. He has little respect for people like Hou Andu who have been famous for a long time but have retreated and returned home. After receiving the message from his uncle, he was shocked by the strong force of the Tang army coming south, but he was not very interested in Hou Andu. He just snorted coldly: "Even if a strong enemy invades, the future of Lingnan will be decided by my father and me. How can Hou Andu, a defeated general, make his own decisions! It is rude for him to come in without asking, and he even expects me to give him armor and horses to help him gain power and happiness. 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 was also deeply embarrassed for a while. He knew that Hou Andu was fierce and difficult to control, and he did not dare to underestimate him because he retreated and returned home. Moreover, he is now powerful in the village and cannot be easily captured. If you want to capture him, you should not attack rashly. It is better to use wits.

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

"Such a thief must have ulterior motives if he is arrogant at first and respectful later. If I go, I will fall into his trap!"

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

However, his strength is still relatively weak at the moment. 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 the other party to give any cooperation.

But the Tang army could invade Lingnan at any time, and Hou Andu couldn't 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 couldn't go, but if Ouyang Sui condescended to visit, he would definitely welcome him.

Ouyang Sui had already arranged soldiers in the prefecture to capture Hou Andu, but he was stood up by the other party. The Hou clan was also quite powerful in Hengzhou. He was worried that if the matter was delayed, there might be another change, so he simply mobilized soldiers and went straight to Hou Andu's hometown and garden.

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

"The northern barbarians have invaded Jiangdong in large numbers 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 state lord 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. The state official is unkind and deserves to be killed!"

After arresting Ouyang Sui, Hou Andu did not show mercy and beheaded him in public, and took the power of the state for himself. He arranged for his trusted clansmen to gather armor and soldiers in the state, and he led the elite troops to the south. When Ouyang He received the letter from Guangzhou and hurriedly led his troops to attack, he was ambushed by Hou Andu on the way, and the Guangzhou division was defeated. Ouyang He could only lead the remnants of the army to retreat to Guangzhou in a hurry.

The Ouyang family had dominated Lingnan for a long time, but they were defeated by Hou Andu who returned home in a hurry. This also made Hou Andu famous in Lingnan again, and many powerful people led their tribes to him.

Hou Andu naturally accepted everyone who came, and tried to expand his own power before the arrival of the Tang army. At the same time, Chen Qian did not do anything too extreme, and sent people to send his family members who were taken away in Shanyin to Lingnan. Hou Andu then sent slaves to Gaozhou to ask for marriage for his son from the Feng family, a powerful clan in Gaozhou, hoping to pull these Li Liao chieftains on his chariot.