Chapter 15 Thirteen, the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty

It can be said that Wang Jun killed himself in Youzhou. It would be a "miracle" if a mediocre and idiot like him could exist on the political stage for a long time during the Sixteen Kingdoms period.Liu Kun of Bingzhou had a lot of dealings with Shi Le. He did not send troops to save Youzhou, not because he really believed in Shi Le’s so-called deception of Wang Jun’s apology (he originally hoped that Shi Le would really apologize, but soon found out Shi Le's real intention), he just saw Wang Jun's inevitable demise, and he didn't want to waste his troops in vain.But when Shi Le wiped out Wang Jun's power, looking back, Liu Kun was the only power remaining in the Kanto region of the Jin Dynasty.At this time, Shi Le's army was to the east and Liu Cong's army was to the south. The situation was very critical.

However, Liu Kun's confidence is very high. What he said in the memorial to Emperor Jin Min was impassioned and bold.He said: "Since the eight states in the northeast, seven of them have been strangled. They were taught by the previous dynasty, and those who survive are only ministers. It is Lean's plan day and night, with Tu Chen as his plan, spying on the gaps, and the bandits copying each other to find them. Soldiers cannot be disarmed." , the people are not allowed to be in the wild. Although the sky net is stretched, the spirit is not yet reached, but the officials are alone with the bandits. If you follow the rules, you will be punished, and if you attack, you will be attacked. May, be ashamed to conquer the camp, be heartbroken, stay where you are, and go to Kou Ting (Liu Kun is located between the main force of Han and Shile. Only then did I express the feeling of "killing the enemy with heart, but being unable to return to heaven, dedicating everything, and dying".) The autumn valley has climbed, the horses have become fat, and the forward armies have come together, the minister should be the first to launch the army and take the lead. The minister and the The two captives do not stand side by side, Cong and Le are not lordly, and the ministers have no ambition to return. The concubine, relying on His Majesty's might and spirit, makes his subtle intentions unfold, and then bows his head to thank the country. He is gone without hatred."

Liu Kun's strategy of using Hu to control Hu still worked, and the Xiongnu army of the Han Dynasty seemed to be particularly afraid of the Xianbei people.On one occasion, Liu Kun sent a Xianbei cavalry to rescue Chang'an, but returned because the road was impassable. On the way back to the army, they encountered Han soldiers who were chasing the Jin army.The Xianbei cavalry then attacked the Han soldiers. Unexpectedly, the Han army, which had felt so powerful before, saw the Xianbei people coming, and immediately retreated without fighting-you must know that it was only 500 Xianbei cavalry. (The reason for this is indeed unclear. The same cavalry met on the land of the Central Plains. If there was a battle, it would be difficult to say who would win. I think the Huns probably suffer from "Xianbei disease".) In order to further Win over the Tuoba Xianbei tribe, and request the imperial court to make Tuoba Yilu the Dai King. This "dai" is the origin of the later Dai State. (Don't underestimate this generation. I think at that time, no one would have thought that it would be this Tuoba Xianbei that would end the northern separatist regime.)

Of course, Liu Kun is only a general of the Jin Dynasty after all, and the one who is really in a difficult situation is the Jin Mindi Sima Ye who is crumbling in Chang'an.Since he came to the throne, Han general Liu Yao's army has invaded Chang'an almost every year. Although he was repeatedly repelled, the situation has deteriorated little by little.At that time, in the south of Chang'an was Cheng Guo, who had already occupied Li Xiong in Hanzhong.The great tribes in the Kanto region fell into the hands of Shi Le, and the Han Dynasty controlled the southern part of Shanxi, which was closer to Chang'an, and the area near Luoyang.

Sima Rui knew in his heart that Chang'an was at stake, and sooner or later the emperor's seat would be his. Even if the proposal to save Chang'an was feasible, it would soon be rejected.However, there were quite a few Jin Dynasty people in the south of the Yangtze River who advocated the Northern Expedition. Liu Kun's young friend Zu Ti was one of them.But you have to know how poor Zu Ti was when he sent troops in the Northern Expedition. He tried his best to persuade Sima Rui to go to the Northern Expedition, but he didn't know that this Jin family clan had no great ambitions at all, but only wanted to settle down in a corner in order to rule half of the country.After much deliberation, Sima Rui appointed Zu Ti the post of governor of Yuzhou—this was nothing more than a bad check, since Yuzhou was still under Shi Le's iron cavalry at that time.The implication of Sima Rui's words is: "Whether this check will be cashed or not, you can decide for yourself." - The material assistance Sima Rui gave was only food for a thousand people, three thousand pieces of cloth, and he was not even given weapons.

Zu Ti almost rolled his eyes at the prince, but he was unyielding. He really took the Northern Expedition seriously, so there was a story of "Zu Ti hit the oars in the middle of the stream". What he said at that time was really cast in the same mold as Liu Kun. (Worthy of being a good brother of "Wearing the Chicken and Dancing"): "If the ancestors can't level the Central Plains, they will never cross this river again!" After Zu Ti crossed the Yangtze River, he rested in the Jiangyin area, recruited more than 2,000 soldiers, and repaired and cast weapons, and his strength gradually became stronger.

At this time, Shile's power was mainly in Jizhou with Xiangguo as the center and Bingzhou and Youzhou in the north. Yuzhou, which Zu Ti faced, was the area where his power was weak. Each circle is big.Among them, Qiaocheng (now Bozhou, Anhui) has two strong dock masters, one is Zhang Ping and the other is Fan Ya.The central government of the Jin Dynasty had no control over this place at all. Even Liu Yan, the general of Beizhonglang who had resisted Shile in Santai, had no time to take care of this piece of land in Henan, so he made a favor and named one of the two as the governor of Yuzhou. One was named the prefect of Qiao County, and the other small forces were under the control of these two families. Do you think those small warlords who have hundreds of soldiers under their hands would really obey them?When Zu Ti found out about the situation, he secretly sent someone to bribe the one led by Xie Fu, and asked him to ask Zhang Ping to come out for a meeting, take the opportunity to kill him, and sacrifice it to Zu Ti.Fan Ya got the news and wanted to avenge Zhang Ping and came to attack Zu Ti.Zu Ti asked for help from Chen Chuan, the owner of the nearby Pengpiwu, and counterattacked Fan Ya, finally conquering Qiao City.

Zu Ti used Qiaocheng as his base, and got the support of Wang Han, the Nanzhong Lang general of the Jin Dynasty. Some nearby dock owners came to attach more, thus regaining a large area of ​​​​the lost land in Henan, which can be regarded as partly honored by Sima Rui. Cheque.However, the cavalry of Shi Le and Shi Hu are strong and cannot be shaken. He can only confront them in the south of the Yellow River. It is far away to regain the Kanto, let alone approach the Guanzhong area. Without reinforcements, Sima Ye was almost waiting to die in Chang'an.Liu Yao, the King of Zhongshan in the Han Kingdom, spent three years finally clearing the periphery of Chang'an.In July of the fourth year of Jianxing (316 A.D.), Liu Yao captured Jingyang, an important town in northern Weibei.Three months later, Liu Yao captured the outer city of Chang'an, and the defenders of the Jin Dynasty were dispersed and retreated to defend in a city farther away from Chang'an.So the Han soldiers surrounded Chang'an City, cutting off all connections inside and outside the city.The number of hungry people in Chang'an City continued to increase, and the people were so hungry that they had no choice but to kill others to eat, and countless people died of starvation.After suffering for nearly a month, even the emperor had nothing to eat.In desperation, Sima Ye burst into tears and surrendered in Kaesong.So far, the Western Jin Dynasty, which ruled the North for fifty-two years and China for only thirty-six years, has come to an end. Another period of Jin Dynasty history continues in Jiankang, thousands of miles away from Chang'an.The Han people can rebuild a regime still called "Jin", thus bringing the so-called "orthodoxy" to the south, but they cannot take away large tracts of land in the north.In the following hundreds of years, the power to continue the history of northern China was left to the five ethnic minorities in the north.These five ethnic groups are: Xiongnu, Jie, Di, Xianbei and Qiang.