Chapter 66 Twelve, Prince of the Golden Sword

After talking about the ending of Houyan, let’s talk about the last Murong country——Nanyan. The founding monarch of Nanyan, Murong De, was the youngest of Murong Chui's generation, and he was also a very ambitious person, but his older brothers were all quite powerful, and they had seldom had the opportunity to display their talents.After Murong Chui's death, a few dead people inherited Hou Yan's foundation, so he showed a slight advantage.In the defense battle of Yecheng, he commanded Houyan officers and soldiers to repel the Wei soldiers for a time, and then took advantage of the weather to get rid of the pursuers during the retreat. "Book of Jin Murong De Zai Ji" records: "In the evening (Yellow River) flows and freezes, it is the night aid teacher. On the morning of the 1st, the Wei teacher arrives and the ice pan is there, if there is a god."

Although Murong De could not turn the tide with his limited strength, his confidence in himself was greatly strengthened.After he retreated from Yecheng to Henan in the third year of Yongkang in Later Yan (398 AD), he completely lost contact with Murong Bao and others, so he followed his elder brother Murong Chui's old example and called himself King of Yan. After Murong De became the queen, he first rectified the interior.Murong Lin, who had become a habit of rebellion, tried to rebel under him again, but he was finally caught and eliminated, which can be regarded as cutting off a cancer in the country of Yan.Then, he personally sent troops to pacify the Di man Fu Guang who surrendered him and rebelled (this Fu Guang was the younger brother of Fu Deng of the former Qin Dynasty, who fled to the East after the fall of the former Qin Dynasty).

However, when Murong De led the troops away from Huatai, he gave a man named Li Bian in the city a chance to cause chaos. Taking advantage of the lack of troops in the city, he killed the general defending the city, Murong He, and surrendered Huatai City to the Northern Wei Dynasty. Murongde lost his base, and the situation was passive. The generals around him all believed that a stronghold should be secured.Some people said to attack Pengcheng (now Xuzhou, Jiangsu), while others said to attack the sliding platform, and there was no dispute.At this time, his Shangshu Pan Cong said: "Shuatai is a land extending in all directions. It is close to Wei State in the north, Jin State in the south, and Qin State in the west. It is difficult to guarantee a safe day there. Pengcheng is a vast land and sparsely populated. It is also a plain. It is dangerous to defend, not to mention the old town of Jin State, which is not easy to take. It is not my strong point to encounter water warfare in the war. But in Qingzhou, the land is fertile, with a radius of two thousand miles, and hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers , The terrain is dangerous and solid. When Cao Yi fought against Shile, he built Guanggu City (northwest of Yidu, Shandong Province), which is enough to be the capital of an emperor. The guard there is Piluhun. Getting what you need is like picking something out of a bag.”

Murong De was greatly inspired by what he heard, but his approach was similar to that before Li Shou proclaimed himself emperor. He invited a monk to do a fortune telling. (At that time, the distinction between religions was not as clear as it was after the Tang and Song Dynasties, and the functions of monks were sometimes similar to those of so-called warlocks. It is said that this monk named Zhu Lang actually used the "Book of Changes" to do divination, which can be seen.) The monk said: "It's a good idea to attack Qingzhou, but the lifespan of the Yan Kingdom is no more than twelve years, and it can only be passed on to one generation."

The outlook is not rosy, but immediate action is warranted.Murongde then moved his army eastward to attack Qingzhou, winning successive battles, attracting the people in Yanzhou and Xuzhou and the subordinates of Piluhun to join him.It only took Murongde a few months to take down Guanggu City and wiped out the entire Shandong Peninsula.In this year (399 A.D.), he proclaimed himself emperor in Guanggu and established his own Yan State. During Murongde's reign, Nanyan's strategy basically focused on defense and did not expand externally (in fact, it did not have this strength).Murong De is known for his prudence (this can be seen from his arrangements for the funeral. Before he died, he was afraid that there would be no peace after his death, so he asked people around him to separate more than ten coffins from the The four city gates of Guanggu were carried out, and he was quietly buried in the valley, so that people at that time hardly knew where his body was buried).Even under the situation of Sun En, Lu Xun's uprising and Huanxuan's proclaiming emperor in the south (see the next chapter), Murongde hesitated again and again, and finally did not send troops to wade into that muddy water.

There is one thing about Murong De that is talked about by later generations.When the officials at the banquet were full of wine, he suddenly asked: "Although I have little talent and virtue, since I became emperor, I have not been arrogant and kept a vigilant mind at all times. How can I compare with what kind of ancient monarchs? " Ju Zhong, governor of Qingzhou, hurriedly flattered him: "Your Majesty is the Lord of Zhongxing, similar to Shaokang and Guangwu." Murongde turned around and ordered his courtiers to reward him with a thousand pieces of silk.Ju Zhong felt that the reward was too much, so he declined.

Murong De said with a smile: "You know how to tease me, so wouldn't I be able to tease Qing? Your words are not true, so I also reward you with false words, what can I refuse?" At this time, Minister Han Fanjin said: "I heard that 'the Son of Heaven has no jokes, and loyal ministers never speak in vain'. Today's speech is deceiving each other. It can be said that both the monarch and the ministers have lost." Murong De nodded to accept the criticism, and immediately rewarded Han Fan with fifty pieces of silk . Murongde himself had no son, and he gradually began to worry about his succession to the throne.At this moment, a legendary figure appeared in front of him.

This person is Murong Chao, the son of Murong De's half-brother Murong Rong.Murongde served as the prefect of Zhangye in Liangzhou when the former Qin Nan conquered the Eastern Jin Dynasty. His mother, Gongsun, and elder brother were both in Zhangye.Murong De went out with the army and left behind a golden knife that he carried with him when he parted. Since then, the Battle of Feishui, Murong Chui's proclaiming the emperor, and the split of Yan State, Murong De devoted himself to Dayan's Restoration Movement, with his mother. The brothers are separated from each other, and there is no news.

In the year when Murong Chui raised his troops, Fu Chang, the prefect of Zhangye in the former Qin Dynasty, captured Murong Rong and all relatives of Murong De in Zhangye, and then ordered to behead them.There is no such thing as an absolute path, two people escaped this catastrophe, one is Gongsun, who was not executed because of his old age, and the other is Mu Rong's wife, Duan, who was pregnant at the time but was not executed.A prison officer named Hu Yanping, who was an official under Murongde when he was young, was very sympathetic to what happened to these two women, so he took them to escape to the Qiang tribe during the chaos of the former Qin Dynasty.The Duan family gave birth to their son Murong Chao there, and together with the Gongsun family, they followed Hu Yanping to wander around the world.

Ten years later, when Gongsun was dying, he handed the golden knife to Murong Chao and said to him: "If the world is peaceful, you can go back to Kanto and give this knife to your uncle, and he will understand." Soon, Hu Yanping also died in Liangzhou, Duan married Hu Yanping's daughter for Murong Chao in order to repay his life-saving grace in the past.After Qin destroyed Liangzhou, Murongchao's family entered Guanzhong with immigrants from Liangzhou.Murong Chao wanted to go back to the Kanto, so he sold himself to the deaf in Changjian (much like his ancestor Murong Han), and the people of Qin State regarded him as a waste, and Yao Xing even made fun of him for being "beautiful but not stupid".

At this time, it was the seventh year of Jianping in Nanyan (that is, the seventh year of Hongshi in the later Qin Dynasty, AD 405), and Murongde had already received news about his mother and brother from the old ministry of Chang'an.In grief, he heard that Murong Chao's posthumous son was still in Chang'an, so he immediately sent someone to Chang'an to look for Murong Chao.When Murong Chao saw Nanyan's envoy, he had no time to say hello to his mother and wife, so he fled from Chang'an to Nanyan incognito. As soon as Murong De heard that Murong Chao had arrived, he immediately dispatched a guard of 300 riders to meet him.When uncle and nephew met each other, Murong Chao took out the golden knife from his bosom and presented it in front of Murong De, both of them hugged each other and wept.Murong De named Murong Chao the King of the North Sea, and worshiped him as General Hushi and Lieutenant of Sili.Murong Chao knew Murong De's intentions, he served Murong De who was already ill at the time with all his heart, and at the same time acted like a virtuous corporal.Not only Murong De was happy, but everyone in Nanyan praised Murong Chao's talent.Murong De made Murong Chao the crown prince before his death, and passed away. (The first time I read Murong Chao’s story, I was really moved by this legend in troubled times. Most of the stories in history books are boring, but there are often things to sing and cry about. The duty of a historian is to write the truth of history so that For future generations to absorb nutrition and comment on gains and losses, their brushwork is rarely used for exaggeration and exaggeration. After reading such stories, I found that the truth of history is sometimes very cute. In similar stories, "Historical Records Zhao Shijia The story in "The Orphan of Zhao" was more moving, but Murong Chao's story has its own special features, because compared with the ending of the former, which seemed to have a bright tail, Murong Chao, who started as a legend The ending is gray. Perhaps, as the monk Zhu Lang who was holding the "Book of Changes" said before, it is God's will to destroy Yan, and human power cannot control it; perhaps it is just that Murong De misunderstood the wrong person and easily believed this nephew; Perhaps, that legendary story itself was a mistake. History cannot accommodate so many possibilities, and who can really know?)