Chapter 60 6. The cry of Shenhebei

The exhausted and demoralized Houyan army walked to Canhebei (now northeast of Liangcheng, Inner Mongolia), and it was almost evening. "There are unpredictable things in the sky", at this time a strong wind blew up on the ground, and a black air like a long embankment rolled forward from behind the Yan army, and finally completely covered the entire army. (The section "Shenhebei" in "Tongjian" is quite wonderfully written, and I will never tire of reading it, especially here, I suggest you read it.) The already fragile hearts of the soldiers were covered with a shadow. A monk named Zhi Tanmeng suddenly felt uneasy and said to Murong Bao: "The raging storm is a sign that the soldiers of Wei are coming. Our army should act Well prepared to resist."

Murong Bao, who thought that Wei Jun had been left far away, just smiled and didn't answer.Zhi Tanmeng begged again and again, but Murong Lin listened impatiently, and said angrily: "With your majesty's prowess, our army is strong enough to run across the desert. The little Suolu (the Yan people despise the Northern Wei Dynasty of the same clan, call him a Suolu) Where did you dare to come here? You damn monk startled the crowd with your lies, you should be killed to strengthen the army!" Zhi Tan burst into tears: "Fu Jian's million-strong army was defeated in Huainan, precisely because he underestimated the enemy and did not believe in the way of heaven!"

Seeing that there was going to be a stalemate in two strokes, Murong De intervened. He persuaded Murong Bao to listen to Zhi Tanmeng just in case, so Murong Bao absent-mindedly asked Murong Lin to bring 30,000 cavalry to the rear.Murong Lin didn't believe in Zhi Tanmeng at all, so he was not willing to fortify well, but let the soldiers hunt around behind the army. Yan Jun walked for a while, then stopped, and camped by the water in the south of Panyang Mountain, east of Canhebei.Even in Murongbao's dreams, he could not have imagined that the Wei army, who was marching in a hurry, had already chased to the west of Canhebei that night!Tuobagui found that the Yan army was close at hand, and deployed the marching plan overnight. The generals led their troops separately, and the soldiers with titles and horses tied their mouths, and secretly approached the Yan army.

At sunrise the next day, the Wei army all climbed to the top of the mountain, and the Yan army camp was under their feet.At this time, the soldiers of the Yan State were stretching their waists, and walked out of the camp slowly, preparing to march eastward, when they turned their heads suddenly, ah, the Northern Wei army was waiting in front of them!Yan Jun was in a mess all of a sudden.As soon as Tuobagui raised his hand, 20,000 elite cavalry rushed towards him in overwhelming momentum.The Yan army fled into the water one after another, and the men and horses trampled on each other. Tens of thousands were trampled to death and drowned.As soon as the escaped soldiers came ashore, Tuoba Zun's army, the Wei army's previous ambush, happened to kill them again. The last psychological defense line of the Yan army finally collapsed. Forty to fifty thousand people obediently put down their weapons and surrendered.Less than a few thousand escaped from the rebellious army. Murong Bao, Murong Nong, Murong Lin, Murong De and others saved their lives by relying on the speed of their horses. Murong Chui's nephew Murong Shao unfortunately died in battle. There are also thousands of princes.

Tuoba Gui had won a complete victory. He selected some available captives from the Yan army to stay in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The rest were going to return all their clothes and food and send them back to the country. This was also an opportunity to attract the hearts of the Central Plains. Wang Jian, the master of his central region, said: "Yan is strong and powerful. This time, we have come here with all the strength of the whole country. Our army has won by luck. It is better to kill the soldiers. In the future, they will have no more soldiers to use. It will be easy to defeat them!"

Tuobagui sighed: "If I listen to you, I'm afraid I will fall into a place of injustice." However, the generals of Wei State still had lingering fears about Houyan, and they all thought Wang Jian's words were reasonable, so Tuobagui issued an order, Bury all 40,000 to 50,000 Houyan soldiers alive! (Wang Jian’s words, Mao Zedong had already had a very insightful comment: “Wang Jian is a mediocre person, and he doesn’t understand politics.” Killing soldiers has always been regarded as a cruel and useless act in Chinese history. Xiang Yu was a super executioner who murdered and surrendered his soldiers, but they all ended badly. Wang Jian, who came up with the idea, ended up with a good death, which is pretty good. After all, Tuobagui created the Northern Wei Dynasty, a hero of the first generation, he could have been a generation of Mingjun , but inexplicably followed Wang Jian's advice and did this thing that chilled the hearts of all people with lofty ideals. Even though he expressed his remorse immediately after the incident, it was unforgivable. Tuobagui never got the Yan Kingdom again. The trust of the army and the people, he besieged Zhongshan, the capital of the Yan Kingdom, for a year. At the end, all the emperor and ministers fled the city, but they were still unable to capture it. He sent people to climb the tower to persuade him to surrender, and the answer he got was: "But I am afraid that it is like a group of participants, so Please let the sun and the moon die!" At this time, Tuoba Gui spit on Wang Jian's face, but it was already too late. So Tuoba Gui never achieved his goal of completely annexing the Yan Kingdom in his life, and it took three generations and forty years to complete the Northern Wei Dynasty. It took many years to finally obtain the homeland of the Yan Kingdom. The impact of Tuoba Gui's killing of tens of thousands of Yan troops in the pit was too great. As for Tuoba Gui himself, he died later, perhaps in the dark. It must be the "retribution" for this shameful "crime".)

Murong Bao returned to Zhongshan, told his father the tragedy of failure, and tried his best to ask Wei to attack Wei again.Next to him, Murong De said: "Suo Lu happened to win this battle, and he meant to underestimate the prince. If you don't subdue them with your majesty's martial arts, I'm afraid there will be endless troubles." After hearing this, the 70-year-old Murong Chui decided to go out to fight for the living space of the Yan Kingdom behind him.He asked Murong Long and Murong Sheng to mobilize the elite soldiers from the old capital Longcheng to Zhongshan, and agreed to make a large-scale western expedition in the next year (396 AD) to attack the Northern Wei Dynasty.

The well-refined Longcheng Jingqi entered Zhongshan, and Houyan's morale was revived.In March, Murong Chui led the Yan army to set off in secret, digging through the Taihang Mountain Road, and approached Pingcheng (now Datong, Shanxi) occupied by the Northern Wei Dynasty by surprise.Tuobaqian's 30,000 troops stationed here.Murong Chui sent Murong Nong and Murong Long to lead the elite soldiers of Longcheng to act as the vanguard to raid Pingcheng. Tuobaqian has always been unprepared, and when he saw the Yan army coming to attack, he rushed to the battle. The Longcheng soldiers were the most powerful old Xianbei army in the Yan Kingdom. They fought bravely one by one, and went down the mountain to the tiger. The Wei army couldn't stand it, and Tuobaqian died in battle. , All the remnants were incorporated by Houyan.

Tuobaqian was Tuobagui's younger brother, and he had great prestige in the Northern Wei Dynasty. When the news of his death came, Tuobagui was shocked and wanted to run away. The Yan army marched all the way, and Murongchui came to Canhebei, the former battlefield.The soil on the mass graves is still fresh, tens of thousands of soldiers who were alive and well a year ago have turned into piles of bones, and countless innocent souls seem to be still floating in the mountains.The Yan army set up an altar, and the father and brother of the dead soldiers wept bitterly together, and the sound resounded through the valley.Faced with this situation, the white-haired Murong Chui felt ashamed and hated in his heart, he couldn't hold on to the last bit of fighting spirit, and spat out a mouthful of blood.Murong Chui, a hero of a generation, just fell down in front of the bloody and tearful Canhebei.

Murong Chui's condition became more and more serious, and finally lost the possibility of continuing to march.The Yan army stayed in Pingcheng for ten days, and built Yanchang City (if it wants to prosper, it will not prosper, alas), then hurried back, Murong Bao and others had to retreat.When Tuobagui got the news of Houyan's rebels, he wanted to take the opportunity to catch up, but when he heard that Pingcheng had fallen, he led his troops back to Yinshan. Murong Chui's fighting life ended in such a tragic war. On his way home, he died of illness in Juyang, Shanggu County (southeast of Huailai, Hebei today), at the age of seventy-one.The cries of Shenhebei, together with the name of the hero Murongchui, have been handed down to this day.As the author writes here, I can’t help mourning silently for the Houyan soldiers on Canhebei, and all I can do is to recall the scene of that day with a song called Qilu: