User:Zrnstnsr/Battle of Jiangling (554–555)

The battle of Jiangling was a decisive battle fought between Western Wei and Liang dynasty, during which Jiangling, the capital of Liang dynasty, was captured and Emperor Yuan of Liang was also killed. The battle left Liang dynasty in a total mess, with different forces had their puppets claim the throne respectively, among whom a civil war would soon break out.

Background
Having dislodged Xiao Cha from Xiangyang, who surrendered to Western Wei and became a vassal, Xiao Yi claimed the emperor of Liang after suppressing Hou Jing's rebellion in 552. In the next year, he quashed the uprising of his brother, Xiao Ji to fight for the throne. As he was enfeoffed at Jiangling, he moved capital to the city. During his campaigns, he also submitted to Western Wei and agreed to become a vassal of the state to seek its help. Western Wei seized Yi Province in turn during Liang's civil wars. However, the emperor did not settle for a vassal, but recognized himself as an emperor, so he claimed territory that Liang had kept before 548 to Western Wei. He was also arrogant in his letter to Yuwen Tai, the regent of Western Wei, who was annoyed and decided to assault Liang.

Prelude
On November 19, 554, Yu Jin(於謹), Yu Wenhu and Yang Zhong left Chang'an to attack Jiangling. Before their depature, Zhangsun Jian asked Yu Jin for Liang's possible actions, to which Yu gave three. Yu said Emperor Yuan must have taken the worst action, i. e., did nothing and guarded the outer city, because the emperor would underestimate his rival's strength and civilians were unwilling to leave their home. Meanwhile, the emperor was teaching Tao Te Ching who liked impractical discussion.

Emperor Yuan knew Western Wei's invasion on the next day. He sent Wang Chen (王琛) to scout for Western Wei's troops, who traveled to Shifan (石梵, in mordern Tianmen, Hubei) and reported no armies. The relieved emperor then restarted his teach while Wei's troops had joined with Xiao Cha's forces and crossed Han River on December 10. At the same time, Emperor Yuan called Wang Lin, governor of Guang Province and Wang Sengbian, governor of Yang Province for reinforcements, both of who were far from Jiangling.

Battle
On December 14, Wei's vanguards reached the outer city of Jiangling but was defeated. Before Wei's arrival, the emperor had built fences around Jiangling, but was destroyed by fire out of nowhere on December 24. Witnessing the fire, the emperor did nothing but sigh, while Yu Jin ordered to build barracks and block the city immediately. Outside Jiangling was the camps of Xu Shipu(徐世譜) and Ren Yue(任約). During the following days, the defenders proceeded multiple offensives only to be repelled, and the anxious emperor moved to multiple temples and sent letter to Wang Sengbian, looking forward to his help.

On January 10, 555, Wei troops launched a general offensive. Hu Sengyou(胡僧祐) led the defenders and personally fought with Wei troops, who was killed by a stray arrow. The death of Hu shook the moral of the defenders, and the west gate was opened for Wei. Emperor Yuan was forced to retreat to the inner city and tried to negotiate with two princes as hostages. On the same day, the emperor burnt his collection of books, which reached 140,000 volumes, and tried to suicide, commenting that reading 10,000 volumes of books would only lead to such a bad end. The request for peace was, of course, rejected. The depressed emperor was advised to breakout and join with Ren Yue's troops, but he refused and surrendered to Wei, wearing white clothes and taking a white horse.

Aftermath
Despite having surrendered to Western Wei, Emperor Yuan was still executed, suffocated by a bag full of dirt, on January 27. Wei then had Xiao Cha claimed the emperor of Liang, and moved his vassal state from Xiangyang to Jiangling, known as Western Liang. Wang Sengbian, not arriving at Jiangling in time, elected Xiao Fangzhi as the new emperor and moved the capital back to Jiankang along with Chen Baxian.

On the other hand, Northern Qi also reinforced Liang during the war, but its troops did not arrive at Jiagnling in time, either. In order to gain interests from the corrupted dynasty, Qi had Xiao Yuanming claim the throne and escorted him back to Jiankang, marking the beginning of the second war of Liang's succession.