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The second of these pretenders, Tengu Peg Leg, first rose in the city of [[Heng]] in 896. Claiming descent from the last Shang emperor, he and his supporters took over the city administration by force and gained the support of its citizens by abolishing taxes for three years and promising to give every citizen five slaves from towns he conquered. Other cities in the region expelled their imperial garrisons and approached Tengu for protection and relief from imperial taxation . With these defections the territory controlled by Tengu's loyalists grew to cover all of the Corummese northwest. He declared himsef emperor with [[Heng]] as his capital and styled his domain as Northern Shang. The loss of important economic centers like Heng and control of important trade routes to the north represented a heavy blow to the Chen dynasty's finances and hobbled its capacity to respond quickly. | The second of these pretenders, Tengu Peg Leg, first rose in the city of [[Heng]] in 896. Claiming descent from the last Shang emperor, he and his supporters took over the city administration by force and gained the support of its citizens by abolishing taxes for three years and promising to give every citizen five slaves from towns he conquered. Other cities in the region expelled their imperial garrisons and approached Tengu for protection and relief from imperial taxation . With these defections the territory controlled by Tengu's loyalists grew to cover all of the Corummese northwest. He declared himsef emperor with [[Heng]] as his capital and styled his domain as Northern Shang. The loss of important economic centers like Heng and control of important trade routes to the north represented a heavy blow to the Chen dynasty's finances and hobbled its capacity to respond quickly. | ||
Alarmed by the rapid rise of Tengu and the | Alarmed by the rapid rise of Tengu and the gathering defection of the northwest provinces to him, in 905; after almost five years of revolt, the weakening Chen dynasty appointed a certain nobleman named Da Beipan, who would later found the Zhong dynasty, to the post of Titanic Captain of the West to deal with the rebellion. Da Baipan mustered and trained his imperial forces of roughly 130,000 men for six months before moving his army straight into Tengu's territory. Da Baipan proceeded to invest the walled city of Sho [[Heng]], attempting to storm the city twice but being repulsed. Settling on starving the city out, he was confident that Tengu's army was smaller than his own and would not approach to give him battle. This would prove to be a mistaken assumption as Tengu's 200,000 strong army force marched its way towards [[Heng]] barely two months into the siege. Despondent at being so outnumbered and with the possibility of being pinned against the city walls, Da Baipan abandoned the siege and began making his way back to Zhong territory. | ||
[[File:Zhong Army .jpg|thumb|Zhong army charges the field at Sashun]] | [[File:Zhong Army .jpg|thumb|Zhong army charges the field at Sashun]] | ||
Overtaken at the Catun Fields, the vanguard of Tengu's army clashed with the imperial force, badly mauling it and sending it running from the field. | Overtaken at the Catun Fields, the vanguard of Tengu's army clashed with the imperial force, badly mauling it in a pitched battle and sending it running from the field. Baipan's army was now at the mercy of his foe. The defeat of Genera Da Baipan by the forces of Northern Shang at the Catun fields left him in a precarious political position at the Chen court. Knowing that his enemies would be calling for his execution, he made the fateful decision to arrange for a truce with Northern Shang and turn his army around in revolt against the Chen dynasty. Proclaiming the Zhong dynasty, he marched his way back to the east and began a 10-year campaign to deprive the Chen of support and cut off the capital. The Chen began forming an army composed mostly of recruits and horsemen from among the northern Degei commanderies under the command of the eunuch Wu Zhao, an experienced battle commander. Paranoia over employing native Corummese units who might defect kept them from calling other forces at their disposal, preferring to keep them as armies in place that the Zhong might have to maneuver around. In any case most of these forces defected or dispersed when the Zhong entered their areas of responsibility, seeing the Chen as a rotting carcass who could rule no more. In 916 Wu Zhao's army first clashed with Zhong forces at Mouyi, routing one of Da Beipan's lieutenants and capturing three thousand men. | ||
Defeating an army led by Duke Kimm sent to check his advance near the town of Sashun. The battle was significant in that Kimm's army was the last significant force the Chen could field that could be used to protect the capital, as other forces were too far away or were abstaining from the fight, waiting to throw their support for whoever was victorious at the capital. Kimm was executed by the rebels but his defeated army agreed to join with Da Baipan. The Chen court attempted to negotiate with their rebellious general and Baipan agreed in what is generally accepted to have been a ruse for time. His true aim to be gaining time while he negotiated in secret with sympathetic nobles on surrendering the capital. By the summer of 910, Zhong forces were only ten kilometers from the capital, holding an incontestable superiority in men, supplies and access to siege equipment to the defenders of the capital. A cabal of nobles rode out to meet with Da Baipan and placed before him the head of Emperor Waguo of Chen, surrendering the city and signifying the death of the Chen dynasty. Zhong forces marched into Daguo to great fanfare with Da Baipan taking the regnal name of Emperor Gong. | |||
====Zhong Dynasty==== | ====Zhong Dynasty==== | ||