Huang Zu

Huáng Zǔ ( Chinese  黃祖  /  黄祖 ; † 208 ) was a general and naval officer at the end of the Han dynasty .

Life

Huang Zu served Jing Province Governor Liu Biao as the military leader and prefect of Jiangxia. In 189 an alliance of governors and generals was formed in the empire against Chancellor Dong Zhuo , who controlled Emperor Xian . Liu Biao initially acted neutral. After the Chancellor fled the capital Luoyang defeated in 191 , the alliance dispersed. Her former leader Yuan Shao fell out with his half-brother Yuan Shu and sought an alliance with Liu Biao. Yuan Shu then attacked his general Sun Jian Liu Biao. Huang Zu, who was defending the border, was initially beaten and had to withdraw to the provincial capital, Xiangyang . During the siege there, he had Sun Jian murdered at night.

The failure of his attack caused Yuan Shu to give up the war against Liu Biao. This allowed Huang Zu to return to Jiangxia and expand his power further. Sun Jian's eldest son, Sun Ce , rose to become a powerful warlord in eastern China in the years after 194, surpassing his nominal master, Yuan Shu, and also threatening Liu Biao's territory. In 199, Sun Ce attacked Lujiang Prefect Liu Xun , who turned to Huang Zu for help. The general sent his son Huang She down the Yangtze with a fleet of 5,000 men , but they were defeated by Sun Ce and driven back to the mouth of the Han River . Sun Ce took 2,000 prisoners and hijacked more than 1,000 ships. Liu Xun fled to the north to the warlord Cao Cao , to whom Sun Ce reported his campaign against the "enemies of the throne" in the form of a written report. Huang Zu had to retreat to behind Shaxian , but was not finally defeated. Sun C's violent death in 200 gave him enough time to reorganize his troops. During this time he received Mi Heng , a counselor given to Liu Biao by Cao Cao. Mi Heng, who was unable to hold office because of his brutality, insulted Huang Zu and was beheaded by him.

Sun Ce's successor was his younger brother, Sun Quan . After he had secured his position and deployment base, he resumed his brother's plans to expand west and south. Huang Zu, his father's murderer, was his first target. In 203 Sun Quan took action against Huang Zus's positions on the lower Yangtze River . Huang Zus officer Gan Ning slew Sun Quan's officer Ling Cao , preventing a complete defeat. Although no decision was reached, Huang Zus's fleet suffered severe damage, so that counteraction was not possible. In the next year or two, Sun Quan sent his generals Cheng Pu and Taishi Ci to stabilize the Poyang region south of Huang Zus's sphere of influence. He operated from Jiaoqiu (present-day Nanchang ), while his reserve (under Sun He , later Sun Shao ) and the civil administration remained stationed in Dantu.

When the Poyang region was secured around 206, Sun Quan ordered his strategist Zhou Yu to attack Jing Province and assured him of the assistance of Grand Administrator Sun Yu from the Danyang Headquarters. First, Zhou Yu conquered the settlements of Mo and Bao, which lay on Lake Pengli and were cut off by swamps from Huang Zus headquarters in Xiakou (today's Wuhan ). After the victory, he increased his troops and defeated Huang Zus's force, whose leader Deng Long he captured and sent to Sun Quan. The next year, Sun Quan led the campaign himself. He weakened Huang Zu's positions with looting trains and won many refugees from Jiangxia. In 208 he carried out the decisive attack on Huang Zus Headquarters and first defeated it by sea, then took the city by storm and killed Huang Zu while fleeing.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Crespigny: Generals of the South, chap. 3, p. 36.
2. ↑ The letter is contained in the Chronicles of the Three Realms 46 as a quote from the Wu lu .

literature

• Rafe de Crespigny : Generals of the South. The foundation and early history of the Three Kingdoms state of Wu ( Memento of April 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Sydney 1990. ISBN 0-7315-0901-3

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Huang is the family name here, Zu is the first name.