User:Zrnstnsr/Siege of Taicheng

The siege of Taicheng was a major event during Hou Jing's Rebellion. After Xiao Zhengde's defection, Hou Jing rebels were able to enter the outer city of Jiankang easily, but blocked outside Taicheng, where the emperor lived, for about five months. Hou besieged the fortress completely and defeated reinforcement multiple times. During the siege, approximately 120,000 civilians gathered in Taicheng suffered famine and pandemic, with only one to two tenth surviving. Taicheng fell on April 24, 549, and Emperor Wu, the emperor of Liang dynasty, was starved to death two months later.

Background
Hou Jing, a former general of Eastern Wei who surrendered to Liang, revolted at Shouyang (present-day Huainan, Anhui) in July 548. By the end of the year, the rebels had crossed Yangtze and advanced to Jiankang, the capital of Liang. The corrupted Liang court assigned Xiao Zhengde to guard Xuanyang Gate of Jiankang, who was actually a traitor and opened the gate for Hou.

The city of Jiankang consisted of two parts: the outer city where civilians lived and the inner city, known as Taicheng (lit. 'the fortress of the central government') where the royal family lived and officials worked. Xuanyang Gate was a gate of the outer city, and Hou was blocked out of Taicheng, unable to control the court.

Siege
On December 10, 548, Hou Jing completed the siege of Taicheng. He declared that if Emperor Wu executed Zhu Yi(朱異, one of the emperor's favorites), he would lift the siege. Emperor Wu believed and was about to execute Zhu when his crown prince prevented him.

Hou soon started to attack the city, with his troops able to circle it several rounds. The rebels set fire on numerous gates and Yang Kan, the leader of the defenders, ordered to drill holes on the gate to have water out. The crown prince also distributed money to inspire defenders. The rebels then use axes to knock at the door, before they were impaled through holes made by their own. The next day, Hou's troops built wooden donkey to attack Taicheng, but were all broken by stones thrown from the city. The rebels then used triangle ones, only to be burnt by fire arrows. Later, Hou built a large siege engine, which was commented by Yang Kan as "The engine is high while the trench is weak, so it is to fall when it comes". As Yang anticipated, the engine fell when it came to the city.

Knowing that he was unable to capture the city, Hou built barracks outside Taicheng and ordered to kill Zhu Yi again. The court also declared that if one could kill Hou Jing he would be awarded Hou's position with trillions of money. Zhu Yi tried a breakout with several hundred troops, which failed as it should be. Yang Kan's son Yang Zu(羊鷟) was also captured by Hou, but Yang Kan yelled that Hou should kill Yang Zu as soon as possible. Yang Kan spot Yang Zu alive several days later, and he even shot to his son. Hou was impressed by his faith and did not execute his son.

On December 16, Hou Jing had Xiao Zhengde claim the throne. A week later, Hou forced civilians to build mounds to the east of Taicheng to reach the fortress, where mounds were also constructed to defense the rebels. Though the mounds in the city collapsed due to rain, the rebels were unable to enter, to whom the defenders threw torches. On January 20, 549, Yang Kan died of illness and Liu Jin (柳津) succeeded his position. When Hou's mounds reached Taicheng, he ordered to tunnel order the mounds and destroy them. Hou fired in the southeast of the city, but the defenders were able to rebuild the wall immediately.

Xiao Lun (蕭綸), who had been assigned as the leader of government forces, tried a surprised attack but was lost and defeated outside Jiankang, before he retreated to Jingkou (present-day Zhenjiang, Jiangsu). Wei Can (韋粲) and Liu Zhongli (柳仲礼) also came to reinforce and were stationed south of Qinhuai River, where the reinforcements reached over 100,000. On February 13, Liu initiated an offensive but again, their forces were lost in mist and Wei Can's troops were isolated, who were encircled by the rebels at Qingtang (青塘, somewhere north of Qinhuai River). As a result, Wei and his attendants were all killed. Heard of the news, Liu and hundreds of his cavalries rushed to rescue Wei, culminating with a pyrrhic victory, with himself severely injured and hundreds of rebels decapicated. Both sides did not dare attack each other after the battle. Xiao Lun and Wang Sengbian joined his forces with Liu several days later, and Liu was elected to be the leader of the reinforcements. However, Liu dismissed the other generals and Xiao Lun, as a member of royal family, was also arrogant, causing the allied forces to handicap one another.

During the painstaking siege, Hou Jing was running out of grain. Hou then pretended to negotiate with the court, which was approved. The panicked court accepted all of Hou's requests, including ordering reinforcements to go back, having his troops cross Yangtze and assigning himself as Shouyang's governor, while Hou Jing was transporting supplies to his camps. Once he completed his transportation, he turned hostile and insulted the court. By this time, only less than 4,000 soldiers could guard the city. Liu Jin, Liu Zhongli's father, yelled to Liu Zhongli for help, who was only enjoying his life every day. Hou Jing further flooded Qinhuai River to inundate the city and attacked more frequently.

Xiao Jian (蕭堅), the heir of Xiao Lun, was responsible to guard Taiyang Gate (太陽門), who was drinking all the day and did not show sympathy for soldiers. His subordinates were annoyed and defected to Hou, who guided the rebels into the gate on April 24. The defenders were unable to inhibit them and reported to the emperor, who accepted the fact and said, "By me my dynasty is established, and by me my dynasty is demolished, so I am not to regret." (自我得之，自我失之，亦復何恨！)

Aftermath
Hou took control of the court after the fall of Taicheng, who ordered the reinforcement to disband. Liu Zhongli obeyed the order at once despite protests from his subordinates. Although Emperor Wu was in control, he complained about Hou Jing multiple times, who was respectful at first. Hou Jing then limited the emperor's food, who would died of starvation on June 12.

After the dissolution of the reinforcement, the royal family began to fight with one another immediately with the victory of Xiao Yi in 552, who would suppress the rebellion in the same year.

Casualties
When Hou Jing approached Taicheng, over 100,000 civilians fled into the city with over 400,000 hu(斛) of rice (approximately 12,000 m3), which was enough to supply the city for over a year. However, they were lack of firewood, meat and salt. At first, they broke Shangshu Sheng and mats for wood, butchered horses for meat and used dry moss as salt. When horses ran out, they began to cosume human flesh, which caused disease among civilians. By March 549, eight to nine tenth of population had died of disease or famine. The human bodies were full of roads and corrupted liquid filled ditches.

On the other hand, many civilians were also killed by the rebels. When Hou Jing drove people to construct the mounds, the exhausted workers were also pushed into the mounds.