Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 533 Who is coming?
What Heba Sheng didn't expect was that when he led his army from Yangzhou and headed straight for Shitou City, he didn't encounter any decent interception along the way!
Heba Sheng himself was shocked!

You must know that Yangzhou is an important defensive town in the north of the Yangtze River and the last line of defense before the capital of the Southern Dynasty. In such an important place, facing Heba Sheng's fully armed army, no army intercepted or checked them, and they easily arrived at the foot of the Stone City.

Heba Sheng himself didn't believe that he could kill his way to the Stone City with only 800 men and horses?
However, having already arrived at the city of Stone, Heba Sheng had no way to retreat. He ordered his trusted men to sneak into the city of Stone, holding Xiao Gang's token, and persuade the defenders to surrender.

Who knew that when Heba Sheng's envoy sneaked into Stone City, he found that there were not many defenders in Stone City, the military camp was empty, and the entire Stone City was completely undefended.

The messenger simply did not go to find the defending general, but returned to Heba Sheng's army and reported the situation to him.

This time Heba Sheng hesitated.

No matter how lax the front is, Shitou City is after all the last line of defense in Jiankang. It should be heavily guarded, right?

Zhuge Liang once commented on the topographical features of Jiankang: "With Zhongshan Mountain coiled like a dragon and Shicheng City crouching like a tiger, it is truly the home of an emperor."

Zhongshan Mountain in the east of the city and Shicheng City in the west of the city are the gateways to Jiankang's defense and are said to have been built by Emperor Sun of the Eastern Wu.

There were several important battles related to Stone City in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

When Emperor Ming of Jin died, important officials such as Wang Dao and Yu Liang were ordered by his will to assist the young Emperor Cheng.

Tao Kan and Zu Yue, who had large armies, were not included in the will, so they suspected that the ruling Yu Liang had deliberately deleted it, and therefore they were dissatisfied with the court.

In August of that year, Yu Liang sent his "commoner friend" Danyang Yin Wenqiao as the governor of Jiangzhou, garrisoning Wuchang as external aid to defend against Tao Kan in the west, and at the same time building Shitou City to strengthen defense.

Later, when Wen Qiao and Tao Kan led their troops to attack Jiankang, Su Jun hurriedly forced Emperor Cheng to move to Shitou City. Seeing the tall city walls, Tao Kan had no choice but to retreat.

Later, during the Su Jun Rebellion, Su Jun broke through the Stone City and once controlled the government of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

After that, Shitou City became a check-in point for powerful officials of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Wang Dun and Huan Wen, these powerful officials of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, had captured Shitou City, controlled Jiankang, and manipulated the government.

Even when Xiao Yan started his rebellion, he captured Shitou City and then took control of Jiankang.

In the early days of Xiao Yan's administration, he also attached great importance to the defense of Shitou City. He sent his son Xiao Gang to be in charge of the defense of Shitou City. The defenders of Shitou City were also carefully selected elites.

However, as he stayed in power for a long time, the situation changed again.

First of all, the original garrison system of the Southern Dynasty was close to collapse.

In fact, the root of this story has to start with Liu Yu’s Northern Army.

The Northern Army at the beginning of the Southern Dynasty put tremendous pressure on the military of the Liu Song Dynasty. Naturally, they were worried that some military leaders would continue to emulate Liu Yu and come to power.

Therefore, Liu Song implemented a policy of strengthening the vassal states, using local vassal kings to control the army, thereby reducing the possibility of rebellion by military leaders.

Then the Liu Song royal family killed each other and rivers of blood flowed.

In order to consolidate the central government, Emperor Taizu of Qi first stipulated that the princes and grandchildren of the emperor were not allowed to set up barracks to gather soldiers and ordered the dismissal of private troops recruited by generals.

Xiao Yan overthrew the Southern Qi Dynasty and eventually established a military system that caused the decline of both the imperial guards and the local armies.

Xiao Yan strictly controlled the number of troops in local vassal states and sent civil officials to control military power.

He was also not confident in the imperial guards, so he frequently rotated generals and reduced other armed forces in Jiankang, including the Eastern Palace Guards.

If it were just this, it wouldn't have collapsed. However, as the land annexation around Jiankang became increasingly serious, the good family men who originally had fighting power continued to lose. In the middle of Xiao Yan's reign, he began to implement the recruitment system in Jiankang City.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with the recruitment system. Many dynasties have used recruitment soldiers, and many of them are also capable of fighting.

However, since Xiao Yan began issuing iron coins, the army of Southern Liang has become too commercialized.

Due to the ever-increasing cost of living in Jiankang, even ordinary low-level officials could not survive in Jiankang on their salaries.

The low-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers in the imperial guards were almost starving to death.

Then, in order to reduce the burden of military ration supply, the army stipulated that all the military rations originally distributed should be replaced by iron coins.

In addition, in order to build Tongtai Temple, Xiao Yan ordered the conscription of soldiers to mine stones near Shitou City and transport the stones into Jiankang City to build a pagoda.

After several such incidents, the grassroots officers and soldiers had no chance of survival.

If he had to undertake such heavy labor with the iron money issued by the court, he would probably starve to death in the military camp.

At this time, the Southern Liang army exerted its subjective initiative.

Soldiers who control the violent machine are definitely the least likely to starve to death.

The soldiers occupied the city gates and collected "reward money" from the merchants passing by.

There were originally naval forces in Shitou City, but now all of them have been sent out to set up checkpoints at dangerous water transport passes and "levy taxes" on merchant ships passing through.

It is called taxation, but in fact it is no different from highway robbery.

Under such circumstances, the combat effectiveness of the Southern Liang army, which was already under-strength, further deteriorated. Even the soldiers were not in the barracks on weekdays, and only reported to the barracks on the first and fifteenth day of each month.

The day Heba Sheng arrived at Stone City was not the first or fifteenth day of the lunar month.

Heba Sheng had no time to hesitate at this point. Regardless of whether it was an ambush or not, he ordered the entire army to charge into Stone City.

After Heba Sheng actually occupied Shitou City, he realized that he was not dreaming and that the ruler and ministers of Jiankang really had not set up defenses in Shitou City!

Heba Sheng was completely confident. He ordered his soldiers to raise flags on the Stone City. Then he sent someone to report to Xiao Gang in Yangzhou, asking him to lead the Yangzhou troops to Jiankang immediately!
When Heba Sheng looked towards the direction of Jiankang City, he no longer had any fear of Southern Liang in his heart.

The Stone City was taken so easily, but what about the Imperial Palace?
If he could capture the monk Xiao Yan and enthrone Xiao Gang to the throne, wouldn't that be the same as General Tianzhu?

The three Heba brothers all saw how Erzhu Rong rose to power.

The thing called ambition was growing, and this time Heba Sheng did not hesitate at all.

When the neatly-lined army appeared at Jiankang's Zhuque Gate, the entire city of Jiankang was terrified.

It had been a long time since the people in Jiankang City had seen such brave soldiers.

The army guarding the Suzaku Gate almost collapsed at the first blow, and the entire Jiankang City immediately fell into chaos.

When Xiao Yan received the news that Shitou City had fallen and Zhuque Gate had been lost, he didn't even know where the troops were coming from.

(End of this chapter)