Chapter 19 The second part Murong Xianbei

If someone asked me which monarch I admired and admired the most during the Sixteen Kingdoms era, I would vote for the former Qin monarch Fu Jian without hesitation.This monarch with a unique personality and charm, even a little different, is indeed easy to attract people's attention and research on him.If someone asks me which country I am most interested in, then I will first think of Yan State—this country built by the Murong family of Xianbei, let me deeply understand the unique national characteristics of Xianbei people.In nearly a hundred years, the talented Murong family has experienced several failures and successes, experienced many honors and disgraces, and established four Yan kingdoms in a row in the troubled North China. No wonder after 1,500 years Mr. Jin Yong wants to choose the descendants of the Murong family as one of the protagonists.The Murong Fu who is determined to restore the country is so similar to the descendants of the Murong family of Xianbei who were subjugated and restored, and restored and subjugated in history.The Murong family was the first batch of Xianbei rulers who aspired to the Central Plains. Although they never became the overlords of the Central Plains, they were like throwing stones to ask for directions. They took the first step, and there must be successors.Since then, the Xianbei people have stepped into the Central Plains one after another, and their influence on the Han people in the Central Plains and even the whole of China has far exceeded the other four Hus in the Five Hus.From the perspective of the Han people, it is the Xianbei people who created and changed their history; and from the perspective of the Xianbei people, the history of the Xianbei people gradually merged with the history of the Han people, or in other words, the history of China in that era.This period of history can even extend to the "Sui and Tang Dynasties" three hundred years later. The royal families of these two dynasties had half of Xianbei blood at the beginning.The prosperity of later generations may have been unpredictable back then, but it is the best answer to the pros and cons of this kind of historical and national integration.

Regarding the origin of the Xianbei people, it is generally believed that they are a branch of Donghu (Donghu is the general name for the Northeast ethnic minorities located east of the Xiongnu tribe at that time). The word "Xianbei" first appeared in the literature of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but its actual existence time should be much earlier than that of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It is mentioned in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty Dongyi Biography": "There are nine kinds of Yi, namely Yanyi, Yuyi, Fangyi, Huangyi, Baiyi, Chiyi, Xuanyi, Fengyi, and Yangyi. Therefore, Confucius wanted to live in Jiuyi.” Xianbei from later generations admired the white race (probably the white race), and was often called Judging from the clues of Bailu (see Chapter 18 of "Battle of Feishui"), Xianbei is likely to be Baiyi among the nine barbarians.After the Warring States Period, the Eastern Hu was very powerful, and Xianbei was generally considered to be a branch of the Eastern Hu. In "Three Kingdoms" and "Book of the Later Han", Xianbei and Wuhuan were also called the Eastern Hu, and they were listed in the first biography. The language customs of the two are similar (their language It should belong to today's Altaic language family, and may be inextricably linked with today's Manchu, Mongolian, Turkish, and even Korean), because the ancestors of the Xianbei people lived in the Xianbei Mountains (northeast of today's Inner Mongolia), so the place It got its name, called Xianbei.

In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a large number of Wuhuan people moved into Serbia, and the adjacent Xianbei people also moved south. Most of these Xianbei tribes lived in the Liaodong area, and later some Xianbei tribes moved to Liaoxi. Xianbei in western Liaoning.When the various tribes of Xianbei gradually rose up, the Northern Huns who once flourished and dominated Mobei were fatally attacked by the coalition forces of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Southern Huns, and the tribes of the Northern Huns gradually disintegrated into small tribes.Since then, historical records about the Northern Huns have gradually disappeared from Chinese historical records. The decline and fall of this once extremely powerful nomadic people is still a mystery.A more common view is that after that, most of the Huns moved westward to the Kangju area, and then moved into Eastern Europe, that is, the Huns (Huns), who were once famous in European history, later became the ancestors of the Hungarians. and the more than 100,000 Huns living in Mobei, because of the strength of the Xianbei tribe and their migration to Mobei, they simply called themselves Xianbei and became the ancestors of Mobei Xianbei. (Xianbei has a different origin since the early stage of development, so it developed into multiple branches later, and there are Xianbei tribes from northeast to northwest.)

When the Xianbei ministries were still relatively weak, they were quite respectful to the Eastern Han regime.Since the time of Emperor Guangwu, the leaders of Xianbei have entered the fortress many times to congratulate Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty.Later, when the Ming and Zhang emperors were in power, Xianbei's cavalry also acted as a gallop, and they quelled the border troubles of the Eastern Han many times. The relationship between Han and Xianbei during this period can be regarded as a close family.However, the good times didn't last long. After the fourth emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the emperor succeeded to the throne, the political and military strength of the central government declined, and the deterrent power against the border ethnic groups plummeted.As the power ebbs and flows, Liaodong Xianbei is of course no longer willing to always be under others.They began to break into the northeast border of the Eastern Han Dynasty again and again, burning, killing and looting, disturbing the border residents.The army of the Eastern Han Dynasty was always at a disadvantage when fighting against it, and sometimes had to turn to the cavalry of the Southern Huns for help.However, because there were many conflicts among the Xianbei tribes, their looting activities were mostly intermittent, and did not cause particularly large chaos.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was an outstanding figure from Liaodong Xianbei, who could also be said to be their "national hero". His name was Tan Shihuai.The birth of this man is very interesting. His father Tou Luhou served in the army for three years in the Xiongnu tribe (the Xiongnu is the remaining tribe after the northern Xiongnu moved westward). Kill this evil species of unknown origin.Tou Luhou's wife begged him and said: "I was walking on the road once when there was a thunderstorm. I looked up to the sky, and it happened that a hailstone fell into my mouth. I was pregnant like this. There must be something abnormal about this child. Why not?" Let’s raise him first.” Today we laughed it off when we heard it, and of course Tou Luhou couldn’t believe it, but he didn’t dare to disbelieve in things like gods and monsters, so he decided to throw the child away.His wife gave the child to her natal family for adoption in private, and Tan Shihuai was finally able to save it.When Tan Shihuai grew up, he really became an outstanding figure. He was very brave and invincible in battle.In the end, not only conquered the various tribes of Xianbei in Liaodong, but also conquered other tribes of Xianbei, unified the area where the Xianbei lived, occupied the old place of the Huns, and replaced the former status of the Huns, thus posing a serious threat to the Eastern Han Dynasty in the south. threaten.

The court of the Eastern Han Dynasty also wanted to imitate the method of appeasing the Huns when the Huns were strong, and Tan Shihuai made peace, but was flatly rejected by Tan Shihuai.Since then, the northern border, which has only been freed from the harassment of the Huns for a century, has once again entered a state of continuous instability.Tan Shihuai divided Xianbei into three parts from east to west, called the eastern part, central part and western part respectively. Northern Xianbei and Longxi Xianbei. During the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, the three northern regions of Youzhou, Bingzhou, and Liangzhou suffered great losses due to the continuous burning, killing and looting of Xianbei tribes inside and outside the Great Wall.The court of the Eastern Han Dynasty decided to imitate Emperor Wu's northern attack on the Xiongnu and completely attack the power of Xianbei, so it launched the largest and only "Northern Expedition to Xianbei" war. The Han army joined forces with the Southern Huns to attack the three tribes of Xianbei in three ways.However, the Eastern Han Dynasty at this time was no longer the strong man of the past. Although it had the ambition of Emperor Wu, it did not have the great talent of Emperor Wu. As a result, it was defeated by the three armies of Tan Shihuai.Later, the Eastern Han Dynasty began the Yellow Turban civil strife, and had no time to take care of the chaos on the border. It could only be a passive defense against Tanshihuai. At this time, Xianbei reached its heyday in the north.

It's a pity that Tan Shihuai died after only living for more than forty years old. His son's talent was much worse than his.When Tan Shihuai's grandson ruled Xianbei, the various tribes of Xianbei returned to the previous state of division, and there were often endless wars among the tribes.In the following years, the Xianbei people began to wait for a long time. They called for the birth of a new "sandalwood tree" to create a glorious history for the Xianbei nation. The heavy responsibility of history finally fell on the shoulders of the Murong family.