Chapter 5 Four, the foundation of a strong country

After Huan Xuan's death, Huan Qian, Huan Xuan's nephew Huan Zhen and others captured Jiangling again, supported Sima Dezong to restore him, and tried to continue to fight against Liu Yu's forces, but they couldn't resist the forces led by Liu Yi, Liu Daogui and others. The bravery of the Beifu's elite soldiers soon lost Jiangling and surrendered the idiot emperor. After the civil strife was just settled, Liu Yu was appointed as a servant, general of chariots, and commander of Chinese and foreign military forces.It was Liu Yu's turn to "take the emperor to command the princes", but after all, he was born as a martial artist and from a humble family, not comparable to a famous family like Huanxuan. It is impossible to "order the world, and no one dares not to obey."Huanxuan proclaimed himself emperor and caused chaos, and the "half of the country" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty almost fell apart.Mao's crusade against Huanxuan originally wanted to go down the river to attack Jiangling, but the generals in Yizhou were unwilling to go on an expedition, so a mutiny occurred, killing Mao's family, and elected Anxi Prefecture to join the army and Qiao Zong to be the king of Chengdu.Soon, Qiao Zong became a vassal to the Later Qin Dynasty, and joined hands with Huan Qian, who had fled to the west, to contend with the Eastern Jin Dynasty. After the Cheng Han Dynasty, a separatist regime appeared again in the remote Bashu area.Lu Xun, who had been harassing officers and soldiers in various counties in the East China Sea, also took the opportunity to go south and captured Panyu (now Guangzhou, Guangdong), and sent his general Xu Daofu north to capture Shixing (now southwest of Shaoguan, Guangdong).Lu Xun, who had no ambitions, attempted to separate Lingnan and sent envoys to pay tribute to the Eastern Jin court.Liu Yu and others had no time to look south, so they temporarily made a "follow the water" and appointed Lu Xun as the governor of Guangzhou, and Xu Daofu as Shi Xingxiang.

The de facto independence of Yizhou and Guangzhou made it difficult for Liu Yu and others to control Jingzhou, Yangzhou and other places in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.It took him several years to completely wipe out the influence of the Huan clan, and then he set his sights on the north.Unlike Huan Xuan who "talked about war on paper", Liu Yu, who had been on the battlefield for a long time, relied on the tangible results of the Northern Expedition to establish his absolute authority in the court. At this time, the north has also experienced several large-scale turmoil.The Tuoba clan of the Northern Wei Dynasty almost wiped out Houyan, which flourished in the Kanto region after the Battle of Feishui, and moved the capital from Shengle outside the Great Wall (today’s northwest of Inner Mongolia Helinger) to Pingcheng (today’s Datong, Shanxi); The remnants of the country split into two countries, Beiyan and Nanyan in the Sixteen Kingdoms. Beiyan claimed to inherit the orthodoxy of Houyan, but the emperor was not as good as one. The regime changed hands several times, and finally fell into the hands of Feng Ba, a Han. Yan, only retains the land of Qingzhou, its jurisdiction area is not as large as today's Shandong Province, and it is just dying; the great country in Guanzhong, Hou Qin, has also declined after being defeated by the Northern Wei Dynasty. Even the kingdom of Xia, facing the small states of Liangzhou that had been subject to them for many years, was a little overwhelmed; the militaristic Helian Bobo, the bald-haired Tan and others did most of their work by burning, killing and looting. They fought endlessly in the Guanzhong and Longxi areas. Power is far greater than constructive power.The situation in the north at the end of the Sixteen Kingdoms period was roughly the same. I have already described it in detail. Here I will only focus on the Northern Wei Dynasty, which ended the turmoil of the Sixteen Kingdoms.

At the beginning of the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there was nothing special about it. At best, it was regarded as the revival of the Tuoba Dynasty. The scale of the whole country was not much larger than the small countries in Liangzhou.The former Qin Dynasty turned from its peak to its decline, and this extremely complex multi-ethnic country fell apart in an instant. The last fifteen years of the fourth century AD became the fifteen years when the northern tribes launched a vigorous restoration movement.Following the trend of the times, the Tuoba Xianbei tribe in the remote north of the Great Wall held a tribal meeting in Niuchuan on the banks of the Xilamlin River in Inner Mongolia today, and elected Tuoba Gui, the grandson of the late king Tuoba Shiyiqian, as the new king. The name "Dai" was originally the name of the princes and states in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. During the Qin Dynasty, a county was established. The government is located in Yu County, Hebei Province today. of the north.Tuoba Yilu's cavalry often operated in this area, so during the Yongjia chaos, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty was named the acting king. In fact, as a nomadic tribe, the Tuoba clan's ruling center was mainly in the Hetao area of ​​Inner Mongolia today.Three months after the revival of the Dai Kingdom, Tuoba Gui changed the country name to "Wei" in order to show his complete independence.

Regarding the issue of the titles of Dai and Wei, there was a discussion within the Northern Wei Dynasty in the first year of Tianxing (398 A.D.).The opinions of the ministers were that the name of the country should be the name of the place where it originated, while Tuobagui himself took it as his duty to pacify the Central Plains and subdue the country, and finally insisted on using the old country name of the Central Plains "Wei" as the country name.Cao Pi's Wei State and Ran Min's Wei State already existed in history, so this Wei was once called "Later Wei" to distinguish the old dynasty.Today we call it more "Northern Wei". I think there are two main reasons: First, the Wei State (or Wei Dynasty) of the Tuoba family was the most important dynasty in the two hundred years of the Northern Dynasty, and the Northern Dynasty All dynasties, except the split Eastern Wei and Western Wei, were added the word "Northern" by later generations to distinguish them from the Southern Dynasties (especially the Northern Qi and Southern Qi need special distinction); In addition to the split East and West Wei, it lasted for more than 170 years, which was the longest time in the split period. It is not appropriate to add "later" to distinguish other Wei states.After the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were no more dynasties with "Wei" as their country name.

Their primary enemy at that time was not the regime established by the various Hus who had moved inward to the Great Wall, but the surrounding tribes who were also located in Mobei outside the Great Wall.For the nomadic people who live by water and grass, fighting against tribes that are enemies is tantamount to a battle for survival.For Tuoba Northern Wei Dynasty to become a powerful country in the north, winning this battle for survival is a necessary condition.These tribes in Mobei can be roughly divided into four categories: one is the Xianbei tribe in Mobei that is against the Tuoba tribe, such as the Xianbei Helan tribe; They are actually a kind of Xianbei, but they belong to Liaodong Xianbei. They are the descendants of the Yuwen Department scattered in the north after being wiped out by the Murong Department. They are of the same family as the Khitan who later established the Daliao; The west and the north, but also often entered the area ruled by the Northern Wei Dynasty.During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Gaoche was mostly used by people in the Northern Dynasties. It was named after its "tall wheels with the most spokes"; people in the Southern Dynasties at the same time called it "Ding Ling". The family is the Dingling people, or the Gaoche people who migrated to the Yellow River Basin. Gaoche’s aliases include Chile, Dili, Tiele, etc. From the origin and flow, Gaoche is the most different from other ethnic groups in Mobei. , and there are many internal differences, mainly because other ethnic groups in Mobei are basically derived from Hu (that is, Xiongnu) or Donghu (Xianbei, Wuhuan, etc.), but Gaoche is not. Their language belongs to the Turkic language family of the Altaic language family. It was different from the Turks who flourished in Mobei later, and different from the Donghu ethnic groups (it is generally believed that the Donghu ethnic groups belong to the Mongolian language family of the Altaic language family); the fourth is Rouran, which was derogatoryly called "Zhuzhu" by the people of the Northern Dynasties, which is also the Xianbei of Mobei. A large branch formed after merging with the Xiongnu (Rouran has almost shared the same time span with the Northern Wei Dynasty, and will be the most troublesome northern enemy of the Northern Wei Dynasty when it is unified in the future).According to the "Book of Wei", the tribes defeated by Tuoba Gui, such as Chitulin, Hetulin, Hexi, Chinu, Chufu, Suguyan, Hoululin, etc., were all tribes of Rouran or Gaoche .

Nomads live in no fixed place, and their organizational framework is very loose. It is very difficult to eliminate them through one or two wars.The Tuoba tribe themselves are nomadic peoples, and they are very aware of this, so the general approach of the Northern Wei Dynasty to deal with these neighbors is to conquer by force, annex and use the resources they have, so as to achieve the purpose of control and possession. Leading troops in battle is Tuobagui's strong point, but he is definitely not bad at managing internal affairs.Since the goal of struggle is not only to have thousands of cattle and sheep, vast pastures, but the entire "world", it is very important to absorb the advanced culture of the Central Plains.Tuobagui and his assistant ministers may learn from other neighboring regimes that were earlier Sinicized, such as the Qin and Qin Dynasties, such as Murong Yan.

The brilliance of Tuobagui lies in the fact that the measures he implemented are quite gradual and planned, step by step, and done very solidly (and, very importantly, these measures can be faithfully implemented step by step by subsequent monarchs down).When he became king, he deliberately guided the Xianbei people who were accustomed to nomadic life to change their lifestyle, learn and engage in agricultural production.After defeating Houyan and capturing Zhongshan City, he moved a large number of people and cattle to the Kanto region, and implemented farming to solve the military food problem needed for the war.During the Tianxing period, he also studied the ritual and music system of the Han people, stipulated various etiquette and music, uniformly promulgated weights and measures, and established laws for supervision and management; The family builds an administrative organization as a unit. He personally assesses officials, appoints officials according to their abilities, and strengthens the nomination system. Incompetent tribal children will not be appointed to official positions, but replaced by titles.

These measures of Tuobagui are extremely common in the eyes of the Han people, but they are a huge innovation for the careless Xianbei people in Mobei.The so-called "foundation of a strong country" is not a momentary military success, but a system that has withstood the test.