How Zhou Yafu Crushed the Rebellion of the Seven States

In the last episode, the king of Wu had raised rebellion, and a chain of kingdoms answered him.

The rebels shouted that they meant only to kill Chao Cuo and cleanse the emperor's side. Chang'an quickly saw through that. What the rebel kings wanted was not one minister's death. They wanted to force the central state backward.

Once Wu and Chu Moved, the Court Faced the Hardest Front First

The most dangerous rebel force was the combined army of Wu and Chu.

Liu Pi of Wu had wealth enough to raise a massive host. Once Chu joined him, the southeastern front became the true core of the rebellion. Zhao stirred in the north, and the eastern kingdoms answered in different ways, but Wu and Chu were the fist.

They struck first at Liang.

The kingdom of Liang sat in a crucial eastern position, and its ruler Liu Wu was Emperor Jing's own brother. If Liang broke, the road westward would open wider.

Emperor Jing Discovered That Chao Cuo Could Devise Policy, but Not Win the War

When rebellion exploded, the court was shaken. Chao Cuo's answer was that the emperor should take the field in person while he himself managed the capital.

That was not a comforting answer. An emperor preparing for war does not easily enjoy hearing a minister speak as though he might comfortably govern everything behind him.

But the war still needed a real commander.

The Name Emperor Jing Remembered Was the One His Father Had Left Him

Emperor Wen had once said that if a major crisis came, Zhou Yafu could be used.

Zhou Yafu, son of Zhou Bo, had already earned a reputation for strict discipline. Years earlier, when the emperor inspected three camps during an earlier northern emergency, only Zhou Yafu's camp at Xiliu had enforced protocol so rigidly that even the emperor's advance party could not simply ride in. Emperor Wen had understood what that meant. A camp that did not bend for ceremony might be a camp that could truly fight.

Now that judgment returned.

Zhou Yafu Was Given the Burden of the Main War

Emperor Jing appointed him commander of the suppression effort. Other men were sent to support different fronts, but the great weight lay with Zhou Yafu.

Before he even reached full command in the field, the court made one of its most disastrous political moves.

Chao Cuo Was Killed, and It Changed Nothing

Yuan Ang convinced Emperor Jing that since the rebels claimed to be acting against Chao Cuo, perhaps killing him and restoring the old territories might stop the bloodshed.

The emperor agreed.

Chao Cuo was cut down, and Yuan Ang himself went as envoy to carry this gesture toward Wu.

It failed completely. Liu Pi had no intention of stopping. He detained the envoy and acted more like a man aiming at imperial power than a prince seeking one minister's death.

By then Emperor Jing finally understood: Chao Cuo had died for nothing.

Zhou Yafu's First Strategic Judgment Ran Against Everyone's Emotions

Most eyes at court fixed on Liang, where Liu Wu was under terrible pressure and sending desperate messages for relief.

Zhou Yafu took a different view.

He argued that Chu troops were fast and hard, that Wu's momentum was still high, and that charging straight in to rescue Liang would play into rebel strength. Better to hold key ground, cut the grain routes of Wu and Chu, and let Liang endure long enough for the rebels to weaken.

This was a painful strategy because it meant letting the emperor's own brother suffer in the front line.

But Emperor Jing, having entrusted Zhou Yafu with the army, accepted it.

Even Before Reaching the Front, He Avoided a Trap

On the march, Zhou Yafu was warned that the king of Wu had likely placed assassins on the direct road. So instead of taking the obvious route, he turned through Lantian and Wuguan toward Luoyang and then advanced through Xingyang.

The detour looked slow. In fact it threw the rebel preparations into emptiness. Later searches proved that men really had been waiting on the original road.

Liang Begged for Rescue, but Zhou Yafu Refused to Move

At the front, Wu and Chu pressed Liang hard.

Messages came again and again. Liang was suffering. Emperor Jing himself sent orders urging relief. Zhou Yafu held his position and did not move.

To many people, this looked almost heartless.

To Zhou Yafu, it was the only winning path.

The Rebels Tried to Force the Battle He Refused to Give Them

Since they could not break Liang quickly, the rebels turned to provoking the Han main force.

They shouted abuse before the camp. They challenged Zhou Yafu to come out and fight. He did not.

Instead he reinforced his defenses, shut the gates, and absorbed the pressure.

Once, when panic broke out at night in the Han camp, he did not rush about theatrically. He stayed still and let subordinate officers restore order. The disturbance subsided. On another occasion, when the rebels created noise in one direction, Zhou Yafu correctly anticipated that the real attack would fall elsewhere.

He was fighting with patience rather than display.

While Appearing Merely to Hold, He Was Actually Cutting the Life of Wu and Chu

The key move was supply.

As Liang continued to pin the rebels in place, Zhou Yafu quietly sent forces to sever the grain routes behind Wu and Chu. A huge rebel army depended on food even more than it depended on courage.

Now the trap tightened in reverse.

The rebels could not force Zhou Yafu into battle, and their provisions shrank day by day. Men began to starve, desertions rose, and the coalition's strength thinned from inside.

At last Wu began to withdraw.

The Moment Wu Turned, Zhou Yafu Finally Drew the Knife

He had spent months refusing battle. Once the rebels faltered, he struck quickly.

Han elite forces pursued hard. Wu's army collapsed, and Chu soon followed. Liu Pi fled with a handful of men, and the great host that had once threatened the empire dissolved into rout.

Liu Pi eventually escaped toward Dong'ou, only to be betrayed and killed there. With Wu broken, the other participating kings lost nerve one after another. Some surrendered. Some killed themselves. Some were captured.

Within three months, the rebellion was over.

Zhou Yafu Won by Refusing the Battle Everyone Else Expected

At first, people blamed him for not relieving Liang.

In the end, they had to admit that had he fought on the rebels' terms, the result might have been far less certain. He let Liang absorb the initial fury while he targeted the rebels' grain. The bigger the rebel armies were, the more vulnerable they became once supplies were cut.

The kings of Wu and Chu rose demanding action. In the end, the one battle they never got was the one they most wanted.

After the Rebellion, Imperial Authority Reached Further

The greatest collective military pushback from the Liu princes had failed.

That gave Emperor Jing more room to extend central authority. Yet once the battlefield quieted, another struggle inside the palace began to swell.

In the next episode, we turn from open war to the succession crisis in Emperor Jing's own household.