Chapter 72 18. Tuoba Tao unified the north

Northern China in the first half of the fifth century AD was finally unified after more than a century of disintegration.In the hands of the all-powerful Shi Le, although there was such a unity, it was extremely incomplete; in the hands of the romantic Fu Jian, it was not very difficult, but it was extremely weak; As far as Helian Bobo is concerned, it's not that he hasn't thought about it, but it's just one of their X plans.It was the turn of Tuoba Tao, the third emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, to solve the problem in only a dozen years.We can't see how much Mr. Tuoba Tao is superior to the previous heroes. Liu Yu, who is called by Cui Hao, has just gone from Jiankang to Chang'an. Tuoba Tao's success may be It proves the correctness of the ancients' thesis that "the long-term unity must be divided, and the long-term division must be united".However, Tuoba Tao couldn't do anything to the emerging but not powerful Liu Song.Pushing the military demarcation line to the Huaibei area, many people did it during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, which means nothing. Fu Jian did not do it, and neither did he.The two figures who changed China's destiny, Tuoba Hong and Yang Jian, were not born until many years after his death. Before that, Cui Hao had already pointed out the crux of China: "the customs of the north and the south are different", and it is necessary for the people of the north to "change their customs". Changing the custom, changing the world", but the process of change is not accomplished overnight, and it is difficult to achieve results if it is not voluntary.

Although the words are superfluous, when they should be said, they must be said.Allow me to present the last period of history of the Sixteen Kingdoms together. After the fall of the Xiliang regime in Nanliang, it also declined very quickly.In the nineteenth year of the founding of Xiliang (417 A.D.), Li Hao, who was determined to create a career, finally passed away due to lack of strength and regret that his ambition was not fulfilled.His son Li Xin still maintains an aggressive stance even though he is at a disadvantage against Beiliang. Juqu Mengxun captured Jiuquan, the capital of Xiliang, in the same year of the Liu Song Dynasty as the Jin Dynasty (AD 420), and Li Xin was defeated and killed.Northern Liang wiped out the remnants of Western Liang in Dunhuang the following year, and became the sovereign state of the Western Regions after Houliang and Xiliang.

At this time, the Northern Wei Dynasty had already won victories in both the north and the south.Taking advantage of Liu Yu's death in the seventh year of Taichang (422 A.D.), it used troops against the Southern Dynasties and occupied all the land in Henan that Liu Yu had recovered from the Later Qin Dynasty.Then, it showed no contempt for the Rouran cavalry who invaded the frontier every year. In the first and second years of Shiguang (AD 424 and 425), it went deep into the desert twice to beat Rouran, making it temporarily unable to invade south. Tuoba Tao, Emperor Taiwu of Wei, who succeeded Tuoba Si, seemed to be more keen on dealing with the enemies in the west and east.He also happened to coincide with the death of Helian Bobo, whose name was as ambitious as his. The Great Xia Empire, which was built entirely on the basis of force and tyranny, broke out when its rule was unstable.

Tuobatao used troops against Daxia in the third year of Shiguang (AD 426). Helian Changzheng, Xia's successor, and Xiqin Qifu Chipan attacked each other, and was driven straight in by Wei soldiers from the Hedong area. Such an important place, the capital of the country, barely defends it. When Tuoba Tao led the army to attack in person in the second year, He Lianchang was not so lucky.There is also a problem with his combat strategy: he asked his younger brother He Lianding to lead 20,000 soldiers to confront the Northern Wei general Xi Jin in Chang'an, and then divided his troops outside the city to ambush the Wei army.Tuoba Tao got the information about the surrendered general, kept showing weakness to He Lianchang, and retreated while fighting, leading the Xia army out of Tongwan City for five or six miles, and then returned to the army to fight back.During the battle, Tuoba Tao's horse fell to the ground and was almost captured by soldiers of the Xia army. Thanks to the cover of the clan Tuoba Qi, the enemy troops approaching Tuoba Tao were repelled.Tuoba Tao jumped on his horse, and this time, with the help of God, he not only killed the general of Xia Jun, but also commanded the whole army to defeat Xia Jun and fled when he was injured by an arrow.

He Lianchang fled to the north of Tongwan City, and was too late to return to the city in a panic, so he went straight to Shangyu (now Tianshui, Gansu), and Tongwan entered the Northern Wei Dynasty.Soon He Lianchang encountered the same embarrassing thing as Tuoba Tao in the battle. His horse fell to the ground and he was captured.He Lianding fled to Pingliang (now Huating, Gansu) to succeed him, and the only area under his control was the cramped area of ​​Longxi. He Lianding was much more rascal than He Lianchang. After he proclaimed himself emperor, he climbed a mountain and looked at the lost ground, crying and said: "The former emperor (referring to Helian Bobo) who inherited the great cause with me, what happened today!" Then He prophesied arrogantly: "I'll let the heavens pretend to be my year, and I will build a prosperous career with you!" As soon as he finished speaking, many foxes shouted at him from the nearby mountain.This Helian Ding can be said to have lost face and lost home.

He didn't dare to fulfill his words, but he didn't forget to compete for territory with the dying Xiqin.The last monarch of the Western Qin Dynasty was begging for Mu Mo, and his territory was shrinking under the attacks of Beiliang and Daxia. He also had to deal with his new neighbor, Tuyuhun, who was of the same clan as the Murong family.It is said that Qifu Mumo was still very cruel, and there were frequent rebellions within the Western Qin Dynasty.The homeland of the Western Qin Dynasty was almost completely occupied by Tuyuhun. Qifu Mumo retreated to Nan'an and asked the Northern Wei Dynasty to surrender. When the Northern Wei Dynasty sent troops to receive it, he changed his mind again. Qin Shun wiped it out.The Xianbei branch in Longxi, headed by the Qifu family, was on the verge of extinction after being brutally slaughtered by the Tiefu people.

Prior to this, Liu Yilong, Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty who had established himself in the country, launched the Northern Expedition in the seventh year of Yuanjia (AD 430).When He Lianding heard about it, he was very excited and sent someone to contact Liu Song.The covenant signed by the two parties is a bit ridiculous like the covenant between the Shu Han and Sun Wu two hundred years ago, which divided the land of the Northern Wei Dynasty with Hengshan as the boundary.No matter how beautiful the vision of the future is, it must be checked by reality.Cui Hao's sentence "Helian Ding's remnant roots are easy to destroy, and he must be a servant of imitation", awakened the hesitant Tuoba Tao, and the Wei army marched west to Daxia and took Pingliang.After destroying the Western Qin Dynasty, He Lianding continued to march westward, intending to cross the Yellow River and enter Beiliang. Unexpectedly, he made too many enemies at the beginning, and was intercepted by Tuyuhun's cavalry in the middle of the crossing, and the whole army broke up.Helian's vigorous "great" country, even if it was rampant in Guanzhong for a while, it was only a flash in the pan.His peculiar half-breed Tiefer brethren melted along with his country.

So among the sixteen kingdoms, only Beiyan in the far east and Beiliang in the far west remained.Feng Hong, Feng Ba's younger brother, took advantage of Feng Ba's serious illness and rushed into the palace with his troops. Feng Ba was frightened and died.Feng Hong killed the prince Feng Yi again, and succeeded him as the King of Dayan in the 22nd year of Taiping in Beiyan (AD 430).The conflict between the Han people and the Xianbei people in Northern Yan was extremely great. When the Northern Wei Dynasty came to attack it after the extermination of Xia, Feng Hong's guards surrendered one after another.Feng Hong proposed peace to Tuoba Tao several times, but Tuoba Tao refused to agree. At the end of his life, he burned down the palace of Longcheng in the sixth year of Daxing (AD 436), fled to Goguryeo, and was finally captured by Goguryeo. Wang Gaolian got rid of it.

(Goguryeo has since become the most powerful foreign enemy in the east of the Northern Dynasty. After acquiring most of the Korean Peninsula and the Liaodong region, it created a Goguryeo era in Korean history. However, compared with the vast Central Plains, it is still only a small separatist regime Therefore, after more than two centuries, it was still wiped out by the powerful Central Plains country——Tang.) Three years later, Tuoba Tao attacked Beiliang, which had been paying tribute to him but had not fully surrendered.Juqu Mujian, the son of Juqu Mengxun, was bound and surrendered after the capital Guzang was captured. Tuoba Tao untied him and treated him with courtesy.The scene when Sima Yan and Sun Hao met one hundred and sixty years ago seems to come back to the present.In this way, history is tossed and turned between amazing similarities. Even if it makes people slightly disturbed to read, there is no supernatural ability to change it.The story of a hero may be soul-stirring in the millennium, but today's people think of it with just a snap of their fingers.When we put aside the heroes and raise them to the level of the entire nation, we can see that the endless life of the Chinese nation is not because it can always be favored by the creator, but is actually formed by the rebirth of the phoenix nirvana again and again. Behind the laughter, there must be experience. The interweaving of blood and tears.In this information age, we may be able to shake off all scruples and judge the fate of those sixteen countries as a joke; but who knows, people in a certain era may also regard ordinary people as me The so-called nonsense remarks of "crossing sixteen countries", or those ten times stronger, are also used as jokes.And behind this laughter, is it not a kind of reflection?The role of history, when it comes to this, is almost the same, and more things are left to the future generations who read it to think about it.