Chapter 24 Chapter Eight: A Tale of Two Cities

The history of Tuoba Gui and Tuoba Xianbei can be described as legend.The relationship between the Tuoba tribe and the Murong tribe is also very close: when Murong Hao was in power, in order to build a good relationship with the Tuoba tribe, he married his youngest daughter, Murong Chui's younger sister, to Tuoba Gui's grandfather Tuoba Shi Yijian——Tuoba Shiyijian is Murongchui's brother-in-law.This is the first marriage.Afterwards, Murong Chui gave birth to Murong Bao, and Tuoba Shiyiqian gave birth to Tuoba Shi. Both Murong Bao and Tuoba Shi were the eldest sons. In 370 AD, Tuoba Shi died in a coup. Two months after his death, his wife Helan gave birth to Tuoba Gui.Therefore, Tuoba Gui is a standard posthumous child.The year Tuobagui was born happened to coincide with the former Qin Dynasty's attack on the former Yan; and Tuobagui's last replacement was also the Houyan established by the Murong family. I don't know if it was a reincarnation coincidence.

After the establishment of Houyan, Murongchui first sent troops to pacify those local forces that responded to Fu Pi's revolt.Murong Yong, who originally planned to return to the east, saw that Murong Chui had already proclaimed himself emperor, so he stopped moving forward. He first built a city in Wenxi, Shanxi, and then went to the title of Emperor, and named himself the King of Hedong, intending to become the Emperor of the Land.At the same time, Murong Yong also wrote a letter to Fu Pi, hoping to return to Hebei by way. Fu Pi thought that a mere Murong Yong wanted to show his prestige on Lao Tzu's territory, so he led an army of 40,000 troops with Wang Yong to the south and fought a fierce battle with Murong Yong in Xiangling (now Xiangfen, Shanxi), but was defeated by Murong Yong. In a big defeat, Wang Yong died in battle (poor Wang Meng's son), and Fu Pi broke out with only a few thousand troops.Fu Pi, who was defeated, was worried about the mutiny of the Taiyuan defenders, so he planned to attack Luoyang, which was occupied by the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but was defeated again and died of the rebellion.

Fu Pi's two sons were captured by the Jin army, escorted back to Jiankang, and later handed over to Fu Hong who defected to the Eastern Jin Dynasty. As soon as Fu Pi died, Murong Yong took the opportunity to make a northern expedition, conquered Taiyuan, and occupied the entire territory of Bingzhou.At this time, Murong Yong felt that his own strength could completely rival Murong Chui's, so he stopped pretending to be his grandson, and instead proclaimed himself emperor in his eldest son's place.Murong Chui's youngest son, Murong Rou, and two grandsons, Murong Sheng and Murong Hui, were worried that Murong Yong would attack them, so they found a chance to sneak out and fled back to Hebei.

The back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves, and the front waves die on the beach. After fighting for so many years, I finally look forward to the day when the brothers and sisters will be reunited.Seeing Murong Rou, Murong Sheng and Murong Hui returning, Murong Chui, who had passed his sixtieth year, suddenly felt a little tired.Since he was a teenager, he has spent time in battle and fighting spirit. He has the joy of triumphant victory, but also the pain of being suspected by others;Every step is walking on thin ice; every day is full of variables and traps. After decades, Murong Chui survived.Life is like a white horse passing by. Those who once fought side by side, most of them died in the loess;Heroes will eventually grow old, whether it is Huan Wen, Xie An, or Murong Chui.Conquering the war and restoring the country has become an unfinished mission, and it is difficult to make his blood boil anymore.The only thing left is the children and grandchildren around their knees, family happiness.

Murong Chui decided to call a truce to celebrate the return of his descendants. However, it is still far from the time for his curtain call: Murong Yong in the west, Liu Xian (son of Liu Kuren) in the northwest, and Zhai Liao in the southeast are all strong opponents of Houyan.After a short rest of more than half a month, Murong Chui started a new round of conquest, and the first target was Zhai Liao.When Zhai Liao saw that Yan's army was powerful, he voluntarily surrendered.Of course, this was just Zhai Liao's expedient measure. While expressing his allegiance to Murong Chui, he secretly incited other local forces to rebel. He was a very cunning and difficult opponent.

Perhaps because he felt exhausted or in poor physical condition, after accepting Zhai Liao's "surrender", Murong Chui did not go on a personal expedition again, but ordered Taiyuan King Murong Kai to lead his troops northward to support Zhao Wang Muronglin and crusade against Liu Xian who colluded with Murong Yong.Liu Xian is not difficult to deal with, but when dealing with Liu Xian, Yan Jun has an extra young ally - Tuoba Gui. After Tuoba Gui returned to the country, he married Murong Bao's daughter.In other words, Tuoba Gui is Murong Chui's grandson-in-law.This is the second marriage.The basis of this marriage is that Hou Yan and Dai Guo joined forces to deal with Liu Xian.

Liu Xian is the son of Liu Kuren.When Tuoba Shiyiqian was in power, Liu Kuren from the Dugu Department and Liu Weichen from the Tiefu Department were under Dai Guo's subordinates, but Liu Kuren was more obedient, and Liu Weichen often made trouble.Shi Yijian also married his daughter to Liu Kuren.And Liu Weichen had a youngest son named Liu Bobo, who later became Helian Bobo.Of course, Helian Bobo was still unknown at this time, and the limelight of the entire prairie was taken away by the young Tuobagui. After teaming up to kill Liu Xian, Tuobagui surrendered to Houyan while accumulating strength in the hometown of Daiguo; while Murongchui spent eight years in the southern and northern wars, successively flattening the capricious Zhai Wei (founded by Zhai Liao) The regime, which was passed down to be located in Zhai Zhao after his death) and Xiyan, who was entrenched in Bingzhou, basically restored the territory of Yan State before the Luchuan War.

From the beginning of the army in 385 AD to 394 AD, during the ten years, Murong Chui spent almost all of his time in battle; during the ten years, his opponents were eliminated one by one; the end of life. Murong Chui rebuilt the powerful Yan State, but what he left behind was a situation full of undercurrents and internal troubles: Among Murong Chui's relatives, Fan Yang Wang Murong De, Taiyuan Wang Murong Kai, Chen Liu Wang Murong Shao , Zhao Wang Muronglin, Liaoxi Wang Murongnong, and Gaoyang Wang Muronglong are all better than the prince Murongbao in terms of talent and merit.It happened that this legal heir, Murong Bao, was a very mediocre person. After Murong Chui retired to the second line, he made a mess of Houyan's internal affairs and diplomacy.

The original ally, Tuoba Gui, also formed an alliance with Murong Yong to fight against Houyan because of the arrogance and rudeness of the handsome Murong boys. In 398 A.D., Tuobagui moved the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty from Shengle (now Helinger, Inner Mongolia) to Pingcheng (now Datong, Shanxi).This is an epoch-making move: Shengle is located on the prairie. Although it is also a city, it still represents nomadic culture.Shengle, the capital of Tuoba Shiyijian, marked the gradual evolution of the Tuoba tribe from a loose alliance of nomadic tribes to a grassland regime with a certain organizational structure-Daiguo.However, no matter in terms of economic structure, organizational methods, cultural development, etc., there is a certain gap between Dai and other countries, so it is not included in the sixteen countries.

Judging from the various performances of Daiguo during the reign of Tuoba Shiyiqian, the goal of this grassland regime was only to rule the northern part of the Great Wall, and did not have a strong desire to go south to rule the Central Plains.Shi Yiqian had been a hostage with Shi Le for ten years, and he knew very well that Dai's own strength was not enough to compete in the Central Plains, so he wisely chose to be the king of the grassland after returning to the throne. Tuoba Gui lost his father when he was born, and his mother took him to live in exile with his uncle He Na and Liu Kuren.The downfall of the country and the hardships of childhood have tempered the tenacity and courage of Tuoba Guilang.He deeply understands that if he wants not to be bullied by others, he must become stronger and then bully others.Living in the prairie, looking at other people's strength, is a missed opportunity, and in the end it is still the end of being swallowed up by others.Therefore, he resolutely gave up the set of things in Daiguo and decisively moved the capital to Pingcheng.

The move of the capital to Pingcheng marked that the Tuoba tribe entered the Northern Wei Dynasty from the Dai Kingdom era, and it also showed the world that Tuobagui, this wolf from Mobei, was coming to fight for the world!