In the third month of the fourteenth year of Daye, Yuwen Huaji staged a coup in Jiangdu, murdered Yang Guang, installed the Sui Prince of Qin, Yang Hao, as emperor, and declared himself Grand Chancellor.
Later, when Li Zitong invaded, he appointed Chen Leng, General of the Left Guard, as governor of Jiangdu (Yangzhou) and put him in charge of affairs there. He himself secretly led his troops west by water, hoping to retreat to Chang'an, but Li Mi ambushed him along the way, and the two sides fought in places such as Liyang.
However, Li Mi soon defeated him, and he fled in disarray, losing a great deal of his troops, ships, gold, silver, and other supplies.
Then, seeing that Chang'an might not be defensible, he hurriedly made his way through places such as Jixian, requisitioned provisions, and led his remaining twenty-odd thousand troops out of Chang'an and to Weixian.
Not long afterward, Yuwen Huaji murdered Yang Hao as well, declared himself emperor of Great Wei, and entrenched himself in Xucheng, Yingchuan. He named his era Tianshou, appointed officials, and—like the other anti-Sui rebel forces, warlords, and ambitious men—finally got to enjoy being emperor for a while.
Of course, news of these affairs did not spread widely through the martial world or across the land, and few people paid attention. Almost no one cared what Yuwen Huaji had done or where he had fled.
After all, everyone knew that Yuwen Huaji, who had murdered the emperor and seized the throne, was nothing more than a pitiable clown being used by others. Of all the men under heaven who might seize the realm and eventually become emperor, he was probably the least likely!
No matter how much he flailed about, he was just a corpse in its tomb, inviting someone