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=====The Four Great Impostors===== | =====The Four Great Impostors===== | ||
Following the great victory at Horoz and with its western flank now secured, the Chen dysnasty appeared to be finally solidifying its position and for the next fifteen years would turn inwards in what is known as the Short Spring Awakening. A widespread purge of corrupt officials led to improved governance in the provinces and increases in collected revenues for the central treasury. Building of a new palace and tomb complex for the dynasty in the Mengguan hills began in this period. Shang remnants however were not completely erradicated at Horoz and several grandees continued to hold out in the countryside throughout the Short Spring Awakening. In 877 the first of the great impostors arose in the western province of Kuchil; claiming to be Emperor Cao Fu returning to claim his inheritance. An army of Shang loyalists, disgruntled officials and bandits soon coalesced around him and defeated an army led by Kuchil's governor sent to stop him. By 879 another Chen army had been defeated, the king of Ghanim sensing an opportunity to shake off Chen vassalage began to support the false Cao Fu with money and supplies. As he marched on Dagu, the false emperor died poisoned possibly by a member of his inner circle aiming to secure a pardon by the government. Although his army attempted to maintain its cohesion, its lack of a figurehead saw many desertions before being ambushed and defeated in the outskirts of the capital. | Following the great victory at Horoz and with its western flank now secured, the Chen dysnasty appeared to be finally solidifying its position and for the next fifteen years would turn inwards in what is known as the Short Spring Awakening. A widespread purge of corrupt officials led to improved governance in the provinces and increases in collected revenues for the central treasury. Building of a new palace and tomb complex for the dynasty in the Mengguan hills began in this period. Shang remnants however were not completely erradicated at Horoz and several grandees continued to hold out in the countryside throughout the Short Spring Awakening. In 877 the first of the great impostors arose in the western province of Kuchil; claiming to be Emperor Cao Fu returning to claim his inheritance. An army of Shang loyalists, disgruntled officials and bandits soon coalesced around him and defeated an army led by Kuchil's governor sent to stop him. By 879 another Chen army had been defeated, the king of Ghanim sensing an opportunity to shake off Chen vassalage began to support the false Cao Fu with money and supplies. As he marched on Dagu, the false emperor died poisoned possibly by a member of his inner circle aiming to secure a pardon by the government. Although his army attempted to maintain its cohesion, its lack of a figurehead saw many desertions before being ambushed and defeated in the outskirts of the capital. | ||
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 rapid defection of the northwest provinces to him, 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 into Tengu's territory. Da Baipan proceeded to invest the walled city of Sho Battai, 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 Sho Battai barely two months into the siege. Despondent at being so outnumbered and with the possibility of being pinned against Sho Battai's walls, Da Baipan abandoned the siege and began making his way back to Zhong territory. | |||
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. After this defeat, Da Baipan offered a ten year truce with Tengu, swearing that the Chen dynasty would pay indemnities to him. More concerned at the time with consolidating his rule than territorial expansion, Tengu accepted the truce and allowed Baipan's army to leave unmolested. Knowing his failure would cost him his life and even after the Catun Fields defeat, in posession of one of the largest imperial field armies, Da Baipan turned traitor and began marching his army to the imperial capital to overthrow the Chen dynasty, taking his place as the third Great Impostor of the period. | |||
====Zhong Dynasty==== | ====Zhong Dynasty==== | ||
=====Conquest of Ghanim===== | =====Conquest of Ghanim===== | ||