Chapter 56 Two, heroes in troubled times

Tuoba Gui, who ascended the throne as a young man, is both enviable and admirable.What I envy is that he has a good background and a good mother.Tuoba Gui's mother, He Shi, was honored as Empress Xianming by the Northern Wei Dynasty. She is indeed an extraordinary woman. During the Three Kingdoms period, Wu Chen Zhao Zi once called Sun Quan the master of wisdom, benevolence and wisdom in front of Cao Pi. Following his logic, We can also say that Mrs. He was witty and courageous, and it was her chance to lead Tuobagui to commit herself to Liu Kuren's department; it was her wisdom to deceive the assassins sent by Liu Xian to save Tuobagui; Returning to the Helan tribe is the result; it is his courage to sternly rebuke his younger brother He Rangan.It is of course very enviable that Tuobagui has such a good mother to help him achieve great things.

What I admire is that with such a background and such a mother, Tuobagui finally succeeded in the future and became the founding monarch of the Northern Wei Dynasty.Throughout the ages in China, there are often people with good mothers and good backgrounds, but young people who have made achievements because of this are not common (prodigal sons are everywhere, isn't it the same in today's society?), the failure that Tuoba Gui counted before Among them are Hu Hai, Liu Chan, Sun Hao, and several minor emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty.For this alone, Tuobagui is already very admirable.

Next, the Northern Wei Dynasty did not join forces with the sixteen states to become the seventeenth state (as Mr. Huang Renyu said), but continued for a century and a half from then on, becoming one of the few long-lived dynasties in Chinese history. , only the Han, Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing five feudal dynasties can surpass it), which is even more rare.How it is done, we can easily find the answer from the history books. It is mentioned in "Tongjian" that the first major event after Tuobagui became king was "relocating to Dingxiang to enjoy the prosperity, farming and resting the people, and the people of the country are happy." ".The affairs of the world are based on the people. Tuoba Gui understands that agriculture should be developed first to please the people. In today's words, it is "to promote economic construction and let some people get rich first." This is a very clever move. , compared with other rulers whose first goal is to open up territory, he is a very special exception. (In fact, the Tuoba clan later expanded its territory in the north, and they did not sweep the Kanto in one go like the Murong clan. Instead, they paid attention to encroachment and gradually expanding their power. One of the reasons for its success.)

Now we have to go back and add two "unfortunate" countries included in the list of sixteen countries: the former Qin of the Fu family and the later Qin of the Yao family.In the less than ten years since then, all they can talk about is war, or "fighting". The news of Fu Jian's death spread to the Guandong, and the former Qin officers and soldiers fell into grief.Prince Fu Hong, who stayed in Chang'an, had already given up the capital in advance, and fled to the Eastern Jin Dynasty with his younger sister, Princess Shunyang.Arranged according to seniority, Fu Pi of Kanto became the most qualified person to succeed to the throne.

At this time, Xie An died of a serious illness. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Eastern Jin Dynasty's withdrawal, Fu Pi repelled the Jin general Tan Xuan and took back Yecheng. oo. Fu Pi led the troops to Luchuan (now Lucheng, Shanxi) in Bingzhou, preparing to return to Chang'an. He walked to Jinyang, where he joined Hussar General Zhang Hao, Bingzhou Inspector Wang Teng, and Youzhou Inspector Wang Yong to confirm Chang'an. It was lost, and Fu Jian was dead, so he proclaimed himself emperor on the spot in Jinyang, pursued Fu Jian as Emperor Xuanzhao, the ancestor, and changed his Yuan to Da'an.

(For most of his life, Fu Jian occupied seven-ninth of the land in the world. He was actually an emperor, and he only retained the title of Great Qin King until his death. This Fu Pi has no morals and incompetence, and he doesn't have much land in his hands. He was eager to become emperor, and the future of the former Qin Dynasty was already known. Among the five monarchs of the former Qin Dynasty, he was the worst one except Fu Sheng.) Fu Ding, Fu Shao and others from the former Qin clan in Hebei had previously surrendered Murongchui. When they got the news that Fu Pi was proclaiming emperor, they all sent envoys to Fu Pi to apologize. them.At this time, the forces left by the former Qin Dynasty in the Guanzhong and Longxi areas still included tens of thousands of troops headed by the left general Dou Chong. The Great Traitor" Yao Chang.

As expected, Fu Pi's situation eased a lot, and at this time, chaos broke out in the west.Murong Chong, who invaded Chang'an, was very proud of Chang'an, but when he heard that Murong Chui had acquired the old capital of Yecheng, he began to fear this uncle and dared not retreat to his native Kanto.He overhauled the palace in Chang'an, preparing to make long-term plans. Those Xianbei nobles did not agree, and the left general Han Yan took advantage of the displeasure of the people, rushed into the palace and killed Murong Chong, and replaced another general Duan Sui as the king of Xiyan.The clans of the Murong family were ashamed of leaving power behind others. The general Murong Yong staged another coup, killed Duan Sui, and established a little prince, Murong Qie, as the King of Yan.They led more than 400,000 Xianbei men and women in the Chang'an area, marching eastward in a mighty way.On the road, the Murong clan fought against each other, and Murong Chong's son Murong Yao and Murong Hong's son Murong Zhong were successively established as Emperor Xiyan.Xiyan changed five emperors (or Yan kings) in three months, surpassing Zhao's record of changing three emperors in one year, which is really unprecedented chaos.In the end, Murong Yong came to power by himself, and he no longer dared to proclaim himself emperor immediately, because he knew that Murong Chui had already proclaimed himself emperor in Zhongshan in Wenxi, so he appointed himself Chijie, chief governor, general, and King of Hedong, and proclaimed himself a vassal to Houyan.

The Di people in Chang'an City were all dead, and the Xianbei people left again. Yao Chang really wanted to laugh out loud, God help me.The small Lushui Hu people (a branch of the Huns) also wanted to settle in, but were soon defeated by the Qiang army sent by Yao Chang.Yao Chang entered Chang'an and became the first emperor of the Later Qin Dynasty.The conversation between him and the ministers at the banquet of the ministers can be regarded as a joke of the "Emperor of Earth". Yao Chang asked the ministers: "Dear dears, who were ministers of the Qin Dynasty together with me, now suddenly become monarchs and ministers, don't you feel ashamed?"

Minister Zhao Qian replied: "Heaven is not ashamed to be your majesty's son, so why should we be ashamed to be your ministers?" Yao Chang laughed after hearing this. The emperor Yao Chang had worked hard. At this time, Fu Deng, the patriarch of the former Qin Dynasty, was elected by the tens of thousands of Di people stranded in Longxi as Chijie and General.Fu Pi was very happy, so he made Fu Deng the king of Nan'an, and led 40,000 troops from Jinyang to Pingyang. In this way, Murong Yong, who is close at hand, has no sense of security.After much deliberation, he came up with a plan of "destroying Guo by false means" and asked Fu Pi to return to the Kanto by way.Fu Pi ignored him, and the two sides fought in Xiangling (today's north of Xiangfen, Shanxi).

Fu Pi led the remnants and fled to Dongyuan (now southeast of Yuanqu, Shanxi), intending to attack Luoyang (now in the hands of the Eastern Jin Dynasty) to find a place to settle down. In the due interception, Fu Pi was defeated again and was killed in the rebellion. (Fu Pi is ashamed to be the son of Fu Jian. He was defeated in World War I and died in World War II. His empress Yang is worth mentioning. After she was captured by Xiyan, Murong Yong wanted to occupy her and make her his wife. She Unprepared, he drew his sword and assassinated Murong Yong, but in the end his martial arts skills were not up to par, and he was killed by Murong Yong.)

Murong Yong took advantage of this battle, won the territory of the former Qin Dynasty in Shanxi, and proclaimed himself emperor in his eldest son (now Changzhi, Shanxi).Several descendants of Murong Chui under him (such as Murong Chui's grandson Murong Sheng) refused to accept him and fled to Houyan.Murong Yong was very angry, and killed all the Murongchui clan who remained in Xiyan, regardless of gender, and completely turned against Murongchui, so Houyan and Xiyan became sworn enemies (this is a later story, we will elaborate on it later). Take a look at the situation in the north after Fu PI's death: in the Kanto region, the former Qin Dynasty lost almost all its strongholds, and several Fu nobles who had just apologized to Fu PI surrendered to Houyan again (there is still one Donghai king Fuxuan left. , and will be destroyed by Yao Chang in the near future), after two years of operation, Murongchui finally reoccupied the territory of the former Yanyan that stretched from Liaodong, Hebei to the Yellow River. Yong's hands, and its northern border is bordered by the Northern Wei Dynasty that Hushi Central Plains.Although the Eastern Jin Dynasty controlled the area south of the Yellow River, Xie Anxin died and there were rebellions from time to time, so he had no energy to intervene in the northern disputes. In Guanzhong, Yao Chang controlled most of central Shaanxi and Weibei, and also placed his capital in Chang'an.In Nan'an (now west of Longxi, Gansu Province), there were tens of thousands of soldiers and horses left in the former Qin Dynasty, led by Fu Deng.The Gansu and Qinghai areas in the southwest have been occupied by the Qifu tribe of Xianbei in Longxi. Their leader Qifu Guoren claimed to be the governor and general, and shepherds of Qinzhou and Hezhou. This regime is the Western Qin Dynasty.In addition, Lu Guang, the famous former Qin general mentioned in the "Battle of Feishui", stayed there for a period of time after conquering the countries in the Western Regions. At this time, he also wanted to return to the Central Plains to compete with the heroes.Liang Xi, the governor of Liangzhou in the former Qin Dynasty, turned his back on him and prevented him from entering the Central Plains, so he defeated Liang Xi, called himself the governor of Liangzhou, and became the new master of Liangzhou.