Chapter 68 14. The Last Huns

When Murong Chao was besieged by Liu Yu's army, he asked the allies Hou Qin for help urgently.Yao Xingben had sent infantry and cavalry to Luoyang, preparing to join forces with the army there to attack the Jin army.However, due to his defeat in the confrontation with the emerging powerful enemy Xia Guo, he had to recover the reinforcements. Compared with Yao Xing's early stage, Yao Xing's later stage situation can be called worse.After he failed in Chaibi, he realized Tuobagui's strength and reconnected with him.However, this move angered Liu Bobo, the Tiefu man who had cast himself under his command and had a deep hatred with Tuobagui for killing his father.Liu Bobo declared his independence from the post-Qin administration.Just as Yao Xing lost one enemy, he added another one. It's really "this hatred will last forever".

After Liu Weichen's influence was wiped out by the Northern Wei Dynasty, Liu Bobo escaped from the Tuoba clan's circle of influence after several trips in the Hetao area, and joined Yao Xing's subordinate Gao Pinggong Meiyu.Liu Bobo's appearance, according to the "Book of Jin", is "sex and wisdom, beautiful demeanor", and in modern buzzwords, he is a handsome guy.Wu Yiyu admired him very much, not only took him in as a general, but also married his daughter to him. Yao Xing's first reaction when he saw Liu Bobo was that he was a talent for helping the world, and he immediately worshiped him as a general of Xiaoqi, and often let him participate in the discussion of military affairs, and loved him a lot.Yao Xing's younger brother, Yao Yong, saw some problems and said to Yao Xing: "Liu Bobo is not kind by nature, so you can't get too close. But His Majesty loves him too much, which really makes me feel unbelievable."

Yao Xing shook his head and said, "A talent like Bobo, I'm going to work with him to pacify the world, what's wrong?" Yao Xing plans to promote Liu Bobo to General Anyuan, and ask him to assist Gaoping (now Guyuan, Ningxia), who is not guarding the border area, and command Liu Weichen's old troops, waiting to attack Wei.Yao Yong repeatedly advised him that this must not be done. Yao Xing asked him: "How do you know Bobo's temperament and behavior?" Yao Yong replied: "Bobo is arrogant and disrespectful to his superiors, cruel to his subordinates, greedy and brutal, and frivolous. If he continues to favor such a person, sooner or later he will become a disaster for the border."

Yao Xing hesitated after hearing this, and canceled Bobo's appointment.Soon, however, Yao Xing completely forgot Yao Yong's advice. He appointed Liu Bobo as General Anbei, and handed him more than 20,000 Xianbei and Zahu tribesmen to guard Shuofang (now north of Hangjin Banner, Inner Mongolia). Therefore, when Yao Xing officially exchanged prisoners of war with the Northern Wei Dynasty in the ninth year of Hongshi in the later Qin Dynasty (AD 407) and reached a friendly agreement, Liu Bobo already had enough strength to rebel against Qin for self-reliance.Just at this time, the Khan of the newly emerging Rouran Kingdom in the north offered horses to Yao Xing. Liu Bobo kept all the horses as his own and expanded his armaments when he passed by Shuofang.He also showed no mercy to his old father-in-law, and gathered more than 30,000 troops to attack and kill Wu Yiyu, annexed his soldiers, and immediately strengthened his team.

Liu Bobo believed that the Xiongnu were descendants of the Xiahou family (that is, the monarch of the Xia Dynasty). In June of this year, he proclaimed himself the Great Xia King and the Great Chanyu, changed his Yuan to Longsheng, set up civil and military officials, and established the Sixteen Kingdoms. The last country-Big Xia. The Beiyan established by Gao Yun is basically at the same time as Xia Guo, because it has been mentioned before, so I regard Xia Guo as the last country here.Liu Bobo's idea is very strange. Regarding the origin of the Xiongnu, it is generally believed that several Di tribes in the north evolved during the Spring and Autumn Period. It is really difficult to trace the ancestors further away.Liu Yuan recognized the emperor of the Han Dynasty as his ancestor, at least it was clearly half-right, but Liu Bobo recognized a monarch of the Xia Dynasty as his ancestor. If there is some basis, it can be regarded as a contribution to archaeology.The descendants of the Xia Dynasty, according to Sima Qian, were enshrined in the State of Qi (which is what we often say "the Qi people worry about the sky"). After the kingdom was destroyed, their clans were scattered all over the Central Plains. When they went to the north to become the Huns, it is impossible to test.Or, let's leave this question as the topic of a dissertation for a graduate student in the history department in the future. It will be very interesting.

With the troops he collected, Liu Bobo first broke through the three tribes of the Xianbei people and surrendered more than 10,000 people.Then he attacked the strongholds north of the Three Cities of Later Qin (now southwest of Dai County, Shanxi), beheading Yang Pi, Yao Shisheng and other generals of Later Qin. Liu Bobo was attacking everywhere, and the generals were very puzzled. They said: "If your majesty wants to manage Guanzhong, you should first consolidate the base area and make people rely on you. Gaoping has strong mountains and rivers, and the land is fertile. You can set up your capital there."

Liu Bobo laughed and said, "You guys, I only know one thing, not the other. I just started from scratch, and I don't have many people under my command. Yao Xing is also considered a hero for a while, and Guanzhong can't be taken down now. If I guard only one city, Yao Xing will definitely attack with all his strength. If he is outnumbered, his failure will not be far away. It is better to use iron cavalry to deal with him. If he does not expect him, I will attack him if he saves him. I have to be exhausted, but I can take his food and grass calmly. Within ten years, the north of the Ling (Qinling) and the east of the river will all belong to me. After Yao Xing dies, his son succeeds him, and at that time You can capture Chang'an, as for the strategy, I already know it in my heart."

Liu Bobo's opinion was indeed much wiser than that of the monarchs of many regimes (such as Zhuliang) at that time.The latter often just stay in the short-term interests, guarding a city and a place, and then identify the target to attack and kill. When a slightly stronger regime appears next to it, it will not last long.Liu Bobo fought guerrilla warfare in an organized and purposeful manner, much like Yao Chang's method against Fu Deng back then.Yao Xing was dragged almost to despair by the tricks his father had used. When Liu Bobo led his army to plunder Lingbei, the cities in Lingbei were so frightened that they dared not even open their gates during the day.Yao Xing couldn't help expressing emotion: "I regret that I didn't listen to my brother's words, and made it to this point!"

To the west of Xia Kingdom was Nanliang, which had occupied Guzang, the old capital of Houliang at that time.At this time, Nanliang's third-generation monarch, bald-haired Xingtan, was on the throne. Before he came to the throne, he was unanimously favored. Therefore, the monarchs of Nanliang passed on their brothers and not their sons, and they wanted him to come to power to "brilliant ancestors".His actions make it difficult to see such signs. He has been fighting with Juqu Mengxun, the king of Beiliang in the remote northwest, for years. The tribe, the power of the country was almost consumed by him.Liu Bobo asked him to marry him, but was rejected. He got angry and led 20,000 cavalry to attack Nanliang, killing and looting tens of thousands of Nanliang soldiers and civilians, and countless cattle and sheep.The bald-haired Xeng Tan was also a soft-headed man, he didn't listen to his subordinates' advice, and when Liu Bobo was retreating, he led the troops in hot pursuit.Liu Bobo blocked the retreat with chariots, and led his army to meet the bald-haired Xie Tan.The bald-haired Xeng Tan didn't think about how to fight, but he knew how to find a good archer to shoot Liu Bobo, but the arrow only hit his left arm, but failed to kill his fighting spirit.The Xia army won a complete victory, pursued for more than 80 li in one breath, and killed tens of thousands of Nanliang soldiers.Liu Bobo admired his booty very much, and ordered the dead bodies to be piled up into a high platform, which was named "Skull Platform".

After that, Liu Bobo defeated the army of Hou Qin again and again. The battle mentioned at the beginning of the article was Yao Xing's personal conquest.However, Yao Xing didn't get any cheap money, he also lost troops and generals, and lost a lot of cities. Liu Bobo thought of changing his surname when he was complacent. He felt that it was unethical for his ancestors to follow his mother's surname Liu, so he ordered his family members to change their surname to Helian.Helian means that the emperor is the son of heaven, and his emblem is connected with the sky.The non-orthodox clansmen use Tiefa as their surname, which means that they are as sharp as iron and can be used for attacking.

In the first year of Fengxiang (AD 413), he conscripted the Hu and Han ethnic groups in the north of Lingbei to build a new city in Shuofang, named Tongwan, to express his determination to unify the world and rule all nations.The minister he sent to oversee the work scolded Ali for being more cruel than him. When he was building the city, he used a sharp weapon to check the quality of the city wall. As long as the sharp weapon could penetrate an inch, he would kill the person who built the wall and built the corpses together. city ​​walls.He Lianbo greatly appreciated such a city-building plan, and then asked him to supervise the manufacture of weapons, and the manufactured weapons also had to go through a murder inspection: bows and arrows could not penetrate armor, and the artisans who made bows and arrows would be killed; A craftsman of armor cannot survive.A piece of exquisite and sharp weapon is manufactured in such a death game. As the last Huns, Helianbo brought the cruelty of the Huns to the extreme in this way.His series of "performances" at the beginning of the fifth century AD became the swan song of the Huns on the eastern stage.