Initial Uprising
In 617, several military officers at Baling Commandery (巴陵, roughly modern Yueyang) considered rising against Sui rule. They initially wanted to support one of their own, Dong Jingzhen (董景珍) as leader, but Dong pointed out that he was of a humble lineage and would not be respected by others, but that Xiao Xian was of imperial heritage and would be supported. They therefore sent messengers to Luochuan to report this to Xiao, who then gathered several thousand men. At the same time, the agrarian rebel leader Shen Liusheng (沈柳生) was attacking Luochuan, and Xiao initially could not repel him. However, when Xiao, believing that the act would cause Shen to submit, declared himself the Duke of Liang and replaced all Sui uniforms with Liang ones, Shen submitted. Within five days of Xiao's declaraiton, he had several tens of thousands of men, and he led them to Baling. Dong sent one of his followers, Xu Deji (徐德基) to greet Xiao, when Shen, believing that his accomplishment would be overshadowed by the contributions of Dong and the others, killed Xu and wanted to detain Xiao. Xiao, in shock, offered to resign, which led Shen to, in fear, beg for forgiveness. Xiao initially pardoned him, but Dong argued that if Xiao did not kill Shen, he could not show the rule of law, and so Xiao changed his mind and allowed Dong to execute Shen. Shen's soldiers fled.
In winter 617, Xiao built a tall altar and burned a wooden pire thereon. He declared himself the Prince of Liang and changed era name to show independence from Sui.
Read more about this topic: Xiao Xian
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