The erratic Hou Jing

One night in the year of Emperor Wu of Liang's last monkhood, he had a dream that all the assassins and governors of the Northern Dynasty came to surrender to the Southern Liang Dynasty. This was, of course, only a hallucinatory dream caused by his day and night thoughts. The next day at court, he told his ministers about it, saying.

"I am a man who seldom dreams, and this dream must be a good omen."

After twenty days or so, it happened that Hou Jing, the general of Western Wei, sent someone to say that he had a grudge against both Eastern Wei and Western Wei and was determined to surrender to Southern Liang, and also expressed his willingness to offer all thirteen states east of the Hangu Pass that he controlled to Southern Liang.

Hou Jing was originally a great general under Gao Huan, the prime minister of Eastern Wei. Gao Huan had him lead 100,000 troops to guard the south of the Yellow River. When Gao Huan was dying, he was afraid that Hou Jing could not be relied on, so he sent someone to recall Hou Jing to Luoyang. When Hou Jing heard that Gao Huan was dead, he did not accept the orders of Eastern Wei and surrendered to Western Wei with his men and horses.

Yu Wentai, the prime minister of Western Wei, also distrusted Hou Jing, and accepted Hou Jing's land offer on one hand, while summoning him to Chang'an and preparing to relieve him of his military power. Hou Jing refused to fall for Yu Wentai's trick and turned to Southern Liang to surrender.

After receiving the messenger sent by Hou Jing, Emperor Wu of Liang immediately summoned his ministers for discussion. Most of the ministers thought that southern Liang and the northern dynasty had been at peace for many years, and now that they had accepted the rebellious general of the northern dynasty, they were afraid that it would cause disputes. But Emperor Wu of Liang thought that by accepting Hou Jing, he could take the opportunity to restore the Central Plains, and remembering a dream he had, he thought it was the Buddha coming to help him. He disobeyed the minister's advice and accepted Hou Jing's surrender, made Hou Jing a great general and king of Henan, and sent his nephew Xiao Yuanming with 50,000 troops to meet Hou Jing.

Xiao Yuanming led his troops northward and was attacked by the Eastern Wei. The Liang army had not fought for many years and was poorly disciplined. Xiao Yuanming was also taken, prisoner.

The Eastern Wei attacked Hou Jing again, who was defeated and only 800 men remained and fled to Shouyang in the territory of Southern Liang.

Eastern Wei sent messengers to Southern Liang, advocating peace again between the two sides, saying they were willing to send Xiao Yuanming back. Knowing this, Hou Jing became afraid and sent a man posing as an emissary from the Eastern Wei to Jiankang, offering to exchange Xiao Yuanming for Hou Jing. Unaware that this was a test by Hou Jing, Emperor Wu of Liang wrote a letter to the messenger, saying that if Xiao Yuanming was returned, he would immediately hand over Hou Jing to the Eastern Wei.

Hou Jing was not sincere in surrendering to Southern Liang, and when he saw Emperor Wu of Liang's letter, he decided to mutiny.

Hou Jing, who had been beaten by Eastern Wei, had the strength to deal with corrupt Southern Liang. His men soon reached the northern bank of the Yangtze River. Emperor Wu of Liang sent his nephew Xiao Zhengde to fortify the south bank of the Yangtze River to resist.

Hou Jing sent someone to lure Xiao Zhengde that if he was willing to be an inside man, he would be crowned emperor after overthrowing Emperor Wu of Liang. Xiao Zhengde, obsessed with power, secretly sent dozens of large ships to help Hou Jing's rebels cross the Yangtze River and also personally led the rebels across the Qinhuai River. Hou Jing entered Jiankang smoothly and surrounded Taicheng, the inner city where Emperor Wu of Liang lived.

Hou Jing used all means to attack Taicheng, but the soldiers and people in Taicheng resisted resolutely. The rebels set fire to the city, but the soldiers and people in the city doused it with water. The rebels used wooden donkeys (a kind of siege equipment) to cover the attack, and the people on top of the city threw big stones to force the rebels back. The rebels piled up two hills on the east and west of the city and tried to enter the city from the hills, but the people in the city also built hills to deal with them.

In this way, the two sides held each other for more than 130 days. When Taicheng was first besieged, there were still more than 100,000 people and more than 20,000 soldiers in the city. Later on, some died in the battle, some died of disease and hunger, and there were less than 4,000 people left. The city was full of corpses and no one buried them. Everyone was hoping that the army of the vassal kings of the southern Liang states would come to the rescue sooner or later.

However, they didn't know that the vassal kings from all over the world had brought 200,000 to 300,000 men and horses to rescue them, but they didn't move their troops around Jiankang. Everyone pushed back and said they had to wait for other rescuers to come. Liu Zhongli, who was temporarily pushed to be the governor, hid in his house and drank for fun every day.