Erzhu Tianguang - Defeat and Death

Defeat and Death

Erzhu Tianguang continued to control the western provinces, and in summer 531 he attacked the rebel general Suqin Mingda (宿勤明達) and captured him, taking Xia Province (夏州, roughly modern Yulin, Shanxi), which Suqin controlled, under his own control, while delivering Suqin to Luoyang to be executed. However, when the general Gao Huan rebelled at Xindu (信都, in modern Hengshui, Hebei) later in the summer, Erzhu Tianguang abandoned his planned campaigns against the rebel generals Gedouling Yili (紇豆陵伊利) and Moqi Shouluogan (万俟受洛干), who controlled the modern central and western Gansu, and prepared for possible action in the east, although he did not immediately intervene in the campaign between Gao and his fellow Erzhu clan members, even after Gao defeated Erzhu Zhao in battle late in 531.

In 532, hoping to force Erzhu Tianguang to come to his clan members' aid so that they could be destroyed together, the generals Husi Chun and Heba Sheng (賀拔勝, Heba Yue's brother) persuaded Erzhu Shilong to put pressure on Erzhu Tianguang to act against Gao Huan. Soon, Erzhu Tianguang took his army to converge with Erzhu Zhao, and Erzhu Shilong's brothers Erzhu Dulü (爾朱度律) and Erzhu Zhongyuan (爾朱仲遠) at the important city Yecheng, which Gao had taken earlier in 532. Despite numerical advantage, however, Gao defeated them, and Erzhu Zhao fled back to Jinyang (晉陽, in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), while Erzhu Zhongyuan fled back to Huatai (滑台, in modern Anyang, Henan). Erzhu Tianguang and Erzhu Dulü retreated toward Luoyang, but Husi rebelled at this time, seizing the fortress of Beizhong (北中, just north of Luoyang across the Yellow River), and when Erzhu Dulü and Erzhu Tianguang failed to recapture Beizhong, they were forced to flee, and they were captured and delivered to Husi, who in turn delivered them, as well as the heads of Erzhu Shilong and Erzhu Shilong's brother Erzhu Yanbo (爾朱彥伯) (whom Husi had earlier captured and executed) to Gao. Gao had Erzhu Tianguang and Erzhu Dulü executed.

The official history of Northern Wei, the Book of Wei, written during the succeeding Northern Qi (whose imperial family was Gao Huan's descendants), was largely highly critical of the Erzhus, but remarked that Erzhu Tianguang was, unlike the other Erzhu clan members, neither corrupt nor violent, and praised him for his recapturing the western provinces for Northern Wei.