Chapter 64 10. The prosperity and decline of the later Qin Dynasty

Juqu Mengxun was more than enough to deal with Ma Quan, Duan Ye and others, but he couldn't immediately eliminate Li Hao's power in Xiliang. The direction of people's hearts between Xiliang and Beiliang was not all on his side. Instead, Jiuquan and Liangning counties were lost due to the defection of the guards.In the same way, he could beat Houliang to the point where only Wuwei County remained, but he couldn't continue to go east and attack the Central Plains, because this time, he met a stronger opponent than him—Houqin Yaoxing. Yao Xing's deeds were better than his father's, which can be roughly seen from his deeds of eliminating Fu Deng in one fell swoop after he ascended the throne.Yao Xing is a monarch with a deep degree of Sinicization. He was not yet 30 years old when he first became emperor, and he was very energetic.He listened extensively to the opinions of his ministers in political affairs, and he believed that those who spoke well and rightly in his letters of advice could receive certain courtesy and even be promoted.On the other hand, he attached great importance to the establishment of education, and took a series of measures to encourage and support learned Confucian scholars to open their own schools in Chang'an to accept students.Since the Battle of Feishui in the north, there have been wars and chaos for many years. Now that there is such a good place in Chang'an area, there are many people who come to apprentice for a while.Yao Xing himself liked to communicate with these old Confucians when he was dealing with political affairs, and talked about things related to literature and art. Chang'an City became the "sacred place" of Confucianism at that time, and there were many literati with Wei and Jin demeanor.He also set up a school in Chang'an to teach law, and called officials from all counties and counties to come to study and assess. During the court hearings for adjudicating cases, if any untimely clauses in the criminal law are found, they will be abolished. It is not easy for the later Qin Dynasty to achieve "no injustice" (no suspicious cases).For the people who became slaves due to famine in the post-Qin period, Yao Xing ordered that all of them be exempted from slavery and given certain relief.Judging from Yao Xing's actions and the implementation of the people he appointed, it is not surprising that the later Qin Dynasty experienced stability and prosperity in the last five years of the fourth century.

Perhaps due to his sinicized thinking, Yao Xing believes that in the current chaotic world, the ultimate goal should be to calm down the chaos in the world.After the fall of the former Qin Dynasty, he first wiped out some small hostile forces around him, strengthened his own strength, and then began to expand abroad.In the fourth year of Emperor Qinhuangchu (397 A.D.), he marched into the Guandong and captured Shan (now Shanxian County, Henan Province) and Shangluo (now Shangxian County, Shaanxi Province) guarded by the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He also ordered General Yao Chong to lead the army to attack Luoyang. It was able to conquer, but moved more than 20,000 refugees from the Henan area into the pass, enriching the population of the pass.

Two years later, that is, the first year of Qin Hongshi, Yao Xing made a comeback. He sent Yao Chong and Zhendong General Yang Fosong to besiege Luoyang again, and this time he finally won.As a result, the prestige of the Later Qin Dynasty was greatly enhanced, and the cities and towns of the Eastern Jin Dynasty north of the Huaihe River and Hanshui River were subordinated one after another. (The defection of these places in the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Later Qin Dynasty had a lot to do with the chaotic situation in the Eastern Jin Dynasty at that time. Huan Xuan and Liu Laozhi supported their own troops and actually controlled Jingzhou and Jiangbei. As a result, the centrifugal force in various places in the south has increased, we will discuss this in detail when Liu Yu plays.)

In the next two years, Yao Xing turned to the west again. In the second year of Hongshi (AD 400), he ordered the vanguard of Yao Shuode, the general who conquered the west, to set off from Nan'an and enter the Western Qin Dynasty. Troops follow.Qifu Gangui was defeated in the contact war with the later Qin Dynasty. Yao Xing's army quickly controlled the important place in Longxi, Kuanghan, and Qifu Gangui was forced to surrender to Yao Xing. After solving the Western Qin Dynasty, Yao Xing continued his westward expedition the next year and attacked Liangzhou.At that time, Lu Zuan, the Heavenly King of Houliang, had a conflict with his cousins ​​Lu Chao and Lu Long, and was killed by Lu Chao, who in turn promoted Lu Long as the Heavenly King.This is a very good opportunity for Yao Xing. The combined military strength of the four kingdoms in Liangzhou may not be able to match Hou Qin, not to mention the civil strife in Hou Liang.

Yao Shuode's army crossed the Yellow River from Jincheng and passed through Guangwu in Nanliang. Nanliang's bald-haired Lilugu (the bald-haired Wugu's younger brother and the second-generation monarch of Nanliang) hurriedly withdrew his defenders to make way for the post-Qin army. .The Hou Qin army drove straight in and came to the city of Gu Zang, the capital of Hou Liang.The Houliang army attacked, suffered heavy casualties, and returned in a complete defeat.All the countries in the Northwest were terrified. Li Hao, Li Lugu with bald hair, and Mengxun Juqu were all frightened. They thought, "If I can't afford it, I can still afford it." .

A few months after Guzang was besieged, Lu Long was forced to surrender to Hou Qin, and Liangzhou came under the control of Hou Qin.And Yao Xing moved Lu Long's tribe to Chang'an two years later when Lu Long was attacked by South and North Liang in turn, and had little place to stand, and in fact destroyed Hou Liang.As for the monarchs of the three Liang countries, the South, the North, and the West, they each accepted the official titles bestowed on them by Yao Xing and became the vassal states of the Later Qin Dynasty. So far, the Later Qin Dynasty has occupied the entire Kansai region, and its power has reached its peak.Yao Xing also welcomed Kumarajiva, an eminent Indian monk who had practiced in Liangzhou for many years, to Chang'an, worshiped him as a national teacher, and asked him to preach. He also assembled a group of monks to translate Buddhist scriptures and build temples.This period also became an important period for the development of Buddhism in Guanzhong area.

If things had been going on so smoothly, the Later Qin might become another powerful country in the north after the Former Qin. However, Yao Xing was not so lucky. He was defeated in a small place called Chaibi (now southwest of Xiangfen, Shanxi). , the opponent was the Tuoba Northern Wei Dynasty who had caused the Murong Xianbei people to suffer so much. Yao Xing was not in a hurry to become an enemy of the Northern Wei Dynasty, his original intention was to marry the Northern Wei Dynasty.Tuobagui promised to marry Yao Xing's daughter, but suddenly changed his mind and established another queen. Yao Xing obviously couldn't hold back his face, not to mention that he was in the midst of his prosperity at that time, how could Tuobagui be so rude.

Therefore, in the fourth year of Hongshi (AD 402), Yao Xing sent Yao Ping to lead 40,000 cavalry to attack the Northern Wei Dynasty, and he himself was the successor.Tuoba Gui ordered his general Sun Fei and others to lead 60,000 cavalry as the vanguard, and he also personally led the army to follow. Judging from the number of people who participated in the war on both sides, it was actually almost the same, and the cavalry in the Northern Wei Dynasty was slightly stronger.What is certain is that Yao Xing's purpose in launching this war was different from attacking West Qin and Houliang. His original intention was roughly to teach the Northern Wei Dynasty a lesson (he also knew that the Northern Wei Dynasty had a good momentum at that time and could not be destroyed for a while).However, even so, the number of people is really pitiful, and the commander's combat intention is not clear enough, which directly led to the lack of confidence of the entire army and eventually failed.

After several contact battles between the two sides, Yaoping was besieged by the Wei army in Chaibi.Yao Xing heard the news and hurriedly led more than 40,000 soldiers to the rescue. This was expected to turn the tide of the battle, but Yao Xing suddenly had stage fright in Puban (today's Yongji West, Shanxi) and hesitated.Tuobagui took the lead and led 30,000 infantry and cavalry to meet Yao Xing's reinforcements. The Qin army was defeated and retreated for more than 40 miles in one go, camping on the west bank of Fenshui. Yao Ping held on for more than three months, ran out of supplies, and decided to take advantage of the night to break out from the southwest.Yao Xing's performance at this time can be described as clumsy, he only knew how to set up a formation on the west bank of Fenshui, and let the soldiers hold up the torches and shout to echo.It was a bad thing that the mobile phone was not invented in those days: on the one hand, we hoped that the friendly army would break through, and on the other hand, we thought that the reinforcements would come to meet us. Both sides could see each other, but they just yelled and couldn’t do anything practical.

In the end, Yao Ping still failed to break out of the siege, and tragically led his generals to commit suicide by throwing themselves into the water. The rest of the army faced the Wei army and captured them all without a fight.One can imagine the pain in Yao Xing's heart as he watched his army suffer a disastrous defeat, but this pain was caused by himself.Yao Xing has done better than Yao Chang in many aspects, but his courage and confidence in facing setbacks is far inferior to Yao Chang who has been defeated repeatedly.The pain of watching his own failure has just begun for Yao Xing. With the loss of courage and confidence, he finally watched a promising Hou Qin gradually decline and collapse in his hands. go down.