Career As Liang Official
Nothing is known about Xiao Yuanming's career as an official until 547, when it was recorded that he was the governor of Yu Province (豫州, modern central Anhui). The people were said to be so impressed by his governance that they made a stone monument commemorating his term of office. However, it became known later that the artisans who carved the monument were associated with and paid by Xiao Yuanming. Therefore, it became widely believed that he had encouraged the people to create the monument to praise himself.
In 547, the Eastern Wei general Hou Jing, in conflict with the regent Gao Cheng, surrendered his domain—13 provinces between the Yellow River and the Huai River -- to Liang. Emperor Wu accepted Hou's surrender and commissioned an army to aid Hou, to be commanded by Emperor Wu's grandson Xiao Huili (蕭會理) the Prince of Nankang. Xiao Yuanming requested to accompany Xiao Huili, and was made Xiao Huili's assistant. However, Xiao Huili was cowardly and arrogant, and he refused to meet his subordinate generals, even Xiao Yuanming. Xiao Yuanming secretly informed Emperor Wu of this, and Emperor Wu relieved Xiao Huili of his command and put Xiao Yuanming in command.
The Liang army, commanded by Xiao Yuanming, advanced on the Eastern Wei city Pengcheng (彭城, in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu), and Xiao Yuanming camped at Hanshan (寒山), in Pengcheng's vicinity, and built a dam over Si River (泗水) to use water to attack Pengcheng. Xiao Yuanming's lieutenant, the general Yang Kan (羊侃), quickly completed the dam, but when Yang advised Xiao Yuanming to attack Pengcheng, Xiao Yuanming hesitated. Because Xiao Yuanming could not come up with a coordinated strategy, the generals under him began to carry out their own actions, including pillaging the people in the region, and Xiao Yuanming was unable to stop them, save the units directly under his own command.
Late in 547, the Eastern Wei forces commanded by Murong Shaozong (慕容紹宗) arrived, and instead of engaging the Eastern Wei forces quickly as Yang suggested, Xiao Yuanming became drunk with wine and allowed Murong's army to settle in. When the armies did engage, the Liang forces were initially successful, but Murong's counterattack caused Liang forces to collapse, and Xiao Yuanming was captured. However, the people of the region was impressed by his refusal to pillage them, and gave him the epithet "the righteous prince" (義王, yi wang). He was taken to the Eastern Wei capital Yecheng (鄴城, in modern Handan, Hebei), where Emperor Xiaojing of Eastern Wei formally received and rebuked him, and then released him, sending him to Gao Cheng's headquarters at Jinyang (晉陽, in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), where Gao treated him with honor—intending to use Xiao Yuanming as a pawn in negotiations with Liang. Subsequently, Gao allowed Xiao Yuanming to write to Emperor Wu and offered to return Xiao Yuanming—causing Hou, who had by that point lost the 13 provinces but controlled Yu Province, to rebel in 548, capturing Jiankang in 549, taking Emperor Wu and his crown prince Xiao Gang hostages, and throwing Liang into a general state of confusion and unrest.
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