Erzhu Rong - Campaign Against Empress Dowager Hu and The Heyin Massacre

Campaign Against Empress Dowager Hu and The Heyin Massacre

By 528, the ambitious Erzhu Rong had seen that Empress Dowager Hu, who was serving as Emperor Xiaoming's regent, had grown increasingly unpopular with the people due to her toleration of corruption by her lover Zheng Yan (鄭儼) and Zheng's associate Xu Ge (徐紇). under advice from his generals Gao Huan and Heba Yue (賀拔岳) and close friend Yuan Tianmu (元天穆), Erzhu considered waging a campaign to end Empress Dowager Hu's regency, and therefore prepared his army for campaign, while claiming that he was seeking to attack the rebel Ge Rong (葛榮), who had claimed the title Emperor of Qi. Empress Dowager Hu, under advice from Xu, tried to alienate Erzhu's generals from him by awarding them "iron certificates" (鐵券, tie quan, advance promises to pardon death-eligible crimes), and when Erzhu realized this, he became increasingly resentful of Empress Dowager Hu.

Meanwhile, Emperor Xiaoming, who was 18 in age by this point, was not any happier about Empress Dowager Hu's toleration of corruption and hold on power than Erzhu. He sent secret messengers to Erzhu, ordering him to advance on Luoyang to force Empress Dowager Hu to give up power and to kill Zheng and Xu. Erzhu therefore started heading toward Luoyang. However, for reasons unknown, Emperor Xiaoming then sent another messenger to him to order him to stop, but the news still leaked. Zheng and Xu advised Empress Dowager Hu to poison Emperor Xiaoming, and she did so. She, after initially declaring a child of Emperor Xiaoming emperor, soon admitted that the child was a daughter, not a son, and therefore ineligible for the throne. She then declared Yuan Zhao, a two-year-old child and son of Yuan Baohui (元寶暉) the Prince of Lintao (a distant cousin of Emperor Xiaoming), emperor.

Erzhu refused to recognize Yuan Zhao as emperor. With support from Yuan Tianmu, he issued a harshly worded statement accusing Zheng and Xu of poisoning Emperor Xiaoming. Empress Dowager Hu sent Erzhu Rong's cousin Erzhu Shilong to try to persuade him to change his mind, but Erzhu Shilong instead encouraged him to continue his resistance. He therefore prepared to advance south, and meanwhile sent messengers to persuade Emperor Xuanwu's well-regarded cousin Yuan Ziyou the Prince of Changle to accept the throne as a competing claimant to the throne. Yuan Ziyou agreed, and as Erzhu Rong approached Luoyang, Yuan Ziyou and his brothers Yuan Shao (元劭) the Prince of Pengcheng and Yuan Zizheng (元子正) the Duke of Bacheng secretly left Luoyang to join Erzhu's army. Erzhu declared him emperor (as Emperor Xiaozhuang). In turn, Emperor Xiaozhuang created Erzhu the Prince of Taiyuan. As soon as news of Emperor Xiaozhuang's ascension reached Luoyang, Luoyang's defenses collapsed, and Zheng and Xu, abandoning Empress Dowager Hu, fled, while the generals Zheng Xianhu (鄭先護, Zheng Yan's cousin) and Fei Mu (費穆) surrendered to Erzhu Rong.

Upon hearing the bad news, Empress Dowager Hu ordered all of Emperor Xiaoming's consorts to become nuns. She herself took tonsure as well, but did not declare herself a nun. Erzhu ordered the imperial officials to welcome Emperor Xiaozhuang into the capital, and the officials complied. Erzhu then sent cavalry soldiers to arrest Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Zhao and deliver them to his camp at Heyin (河陰, near Luoyang). Once Empress Dowager Hu met Erzhu, she tried to repeatedly explain and defend her actions. Erzhu became impatient of her explanations, and he left abruptly and ordered that Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Zhao be thrown into the Yellow River to drown.

Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Zhao would not be Erzhu's only victims, however. Fei suggested to Erzhu that since his army was actually small, as soon as the imperial officials realized the situation, they would resist him. He suggested that Erzhu carry out a massacre of the imperial officials, and Erzhu, despite the opposition of his strategist Murong Shaozong (慕容紹宗), proceeded. Erzhu ordered the imperial officials to his camp at Heyin (河陰, near Luoyang) under the pretense that Emperor Xiaozhuang was going to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth there, and then surrounded the imperial officials and slaughtered them, killing more than 2,000 of them, including Emperor Xiaozhuang's uncle, the prime minister Yuan Yong the Prince of Gaoyang. Erzhu also sent soldiers to assassinate Yuan Shao and Yuan Zizheng, while putting Emperor Xiaozhuang under effective arrest in the army camp.

Emperor Xiaozhuang, in fear and anger, sent a messenger to Erzhu, suggesting that he would be willing to yield the throne, either to Erzhu or to yet another person that Erzhu designated. Erzhu, under suggestion of Gao Huan, toyed with the ideas of taking the throne himself or offering it to Yuan Tianmu, himself a member of the imperial clan, albeit distant from the recent emperors' lineage. Subsequently, however, his sorcerer Liu Lingzhu (劉靈助) predicted that neither Erzhu himself nor Yuan Tianmu was favored to be an emperor by the gods, and that only Emperor Xiaozhuang was favored. Erzhu therefore stopped those plans, and offered a deep apology to Emperor Xiaozhuang, claiming that the massacre was a result of the soldiers going out of control. However, the people of Luoyang and the surviving imperial officials, fearful of further massacre, fled Luoyang, which was then left nearly empty, particularly because Erzhu publicly pondered the idea of moving the capital to Jinyang (晉陽, in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi). It was not until Erzhu offered offices to the heirs of the officials who died and publicly renounced the idea of moving the capital that the people began to return to Luoyang.