Chapter 80 Chapter 79: Wu Mourning Heavenly King Ran Min

Ran Min, whose courtesy name is Yongzeng, and small character Jinu, was a native of Neihuang (now part of Henan) in Wei County.He was the adopted grandson of Shi Hu, the emperor of Zhao State, so he was also called Shi Min.His father was adopted by Shi Hu as an adopted son. He once served as General Zuo Jishe and was named Marquis of Xihua.Although Ran Min is an adopted grandson, he is favored by Shi Hu just like his own grandson because of his quick response.When he grows up, the courageous Ran Min is naturally promoted to general by Shi Hu.Ran Min also lived up to Shi Hu's high hopes, charged forward in the war, regarded death as home, and gradually established a high military prestige.

In the first year of the crown prince (349 A.D.), Shi Hu died of illness, and the crown prince Shi Shi succeeded to the throne.At this time, Ran Min had restored his original surname, and he, Yao Yizhong, Pu Hong, Liu Ning and others were very angry when they heard the news on their way back to Yecheng (now southeast of Linzhang, Hebei) after suppressing the Liangdu Uprising. Therefore, they encouraged their general Pengcheng Wang Shizun to attack Zhang Jackal and Empress Dowager Liu.Shi Zun also had the ambition to be emperor, so he asked Ran Min to lead the way to Yecheng.In order to make Ran Min work better for him, Shi Zun made a wish to Ran Min: "Work hard, and when it is done, I will make you the prince." He broke his promise and made his nephew Shi Yan the crown prince.Under the instigation of Zhongshuling Meng Zhun and Zuowei General Wang Luan, he planned to kill Ran Min.Ran Min was shocked when he received Shi Jian's secret report, and immediately led his troops to kill Shi Zun, Queen Mother Zheng, prince Shi Yan, Meng Zhun, and Wang Luan, and promoted Shi Jian to be emperor, and Ran Min himself became a general.

Soon after Shi Jian came to the throne, he secretly ordered Shi Bao and the other three to attack Ran Min in the middle of the night.Ran Min fought hard and beat Shi Bao and others back.Then, Ran Min killed Shi Cheng, the leader of the army, Shi Qi, the servant, and Shi Hui, the former governor of Hedong, who tried to murder him.General Youxiang Sun Fudu led 3000 Jie soldiers to attack Ran Min, who was also defeated by Ran Min, and then retreated to Fengyang Gate.Ran Min ordered thousands of soldiers to destroy the Jinming Gate and enter the palace, captured Shi Jian alive, and killed Sun Fudu.

After Ran Min imprisoned Shi Jian in Yulongguan, he wanted to know people's attitude towards him, so he issued an order: "Recently, Sun Fudu and others launched a rebellion, and I have wiped them all out. From today on, you are willing to be with me wholeheartedly." All the people who are in charge stay here, and those who don’t want to work with me can go their separate ways.” Because Ran Min is a Han, after Zhao Han heard the news, he returned to Yecheng day and night, while Hu and Jie helped the old and the young to leave the city one after another. .Ran Min saw that the Hu people were not interested in him, so he said to the soldiers: "As long as you kill a Hu man, the civil servants can be promoted to three ranks, and the military officers will all be named Yamen Jiang." All of them became murderers without blinking an eye, killing tens of thousands of heads in one day.Ran Min thought that too few people had killed people, so he personally led troops to massacre everywhere. As long as they were Hu, Jie, men, women, or children, they would kill with a knife and shoot with a bow, killing more than 200,000 people.In the first month of the following year, Ran Min killed Shi Jian and Shi Hu's 28 grandsons.

On the day Ran Min killed Shi Jian, 48 people including Situ Shenzhong jointly submitted a letter of loyalty urging Ran Min to proclaim himself emperor.Ran Min called them to him, and said hypocritically: "We are all subjects of the Jin Dynasty, and now the Jin Dynasty still exists, we can only divide the prefectures and counties, and call them Mu, Shou, Gong, and Marquis. In any case, we cannot call ourselves kings or emperors. Hu Kui, the Shangshu, knew that this was not what Ran Min was thinking, so he said to Ran Min: "You have high virtue and respect, and you should be called emperor. The Jin Dynasty has already fled to the south of the Yangtze River, so why should we bother with it!" Ran Min said with a smile: "Hu Shangshu What you said makes sense." So he took the throne and changed the name of the country to Great Wei.It was called Ran Wei in history.

In March of the first year of Yongnian (350 A.D.), that is, two months after Ran Min proclaimed himself emperor, Shi Zhi, king of Xinxing of Zhao Dynasty, also became emperor in Xiangguo (now Xingtai, Hebei).These two regimes are incompatible and both want to annex each other.In April of the same year, Shi Zhi sent Shi Kun, king of Ruyin, to attack Ran Min.How could Ran Min let Shi Zhi gain power!After a battle, Ran Min defeated Shi Zhi's 100,000 troops.Half a year later, Ran Min took the initiative to start a war against Shi Zhi, and led an army of 100,000 people to surround Xiangguo for several months.In March of the following year, Yao Yizhong and Shi Kun came to rescue Shi Zhi. Ran Min hurriedly sent Hu Kui and Sun Wei to resist the reinforcements, but they were defeated by Yao Yizhong and Shi Kun.Seeing this, Ran Min was very nervous and went to fight Yao Yizhong and Shi Kun himself.Unexpectedly, after the army was pulled out, Yao Yizhong's sons Yao Xiang, Shi Kun and Yuewan were attacked from three sides. Ran Min's son Ran Yin and Zuo Pushe Liu Qi were captured alive in Xiangguo, where they were brutally killed by Shi Zhi. Tens of thousands of officers and soldiers died on the battlefield. Ran Min secretly fled back to Yecheng with a dozen cavalrymen. He was so frightened that he hid in the palace for several days without daring to show his face.The officers, soldiers and ordinary people in Ye City thought that Ran Min had died on the battlefield and that Ran Wei was about to face a catastrophe. They were all terrified and didn't know what to do.Seeing this, Captain Shesheng persuaded Ran Min to go to the outskirts for a sacrifice to reassure the people. Ran Min was very obedient at this time, held the sacrifice grandly, and the rumors quickly disappeared.

However, within a few days, 70,000 officers and soldiers led by Liu Xian, Shi Zhi's subordinate, arrived at Mingguang Hall, which is only 23 miles away from Yecheng.After hearing the news, Ran Min ran around like ants in a hot pot, and when he calmed down, he immediately sent someone to inform General Wang Tai to discuss countermeasures.Wang Tai once advised Ran Min to be cautious before going to the battle, but Ran Min did not accept the advice. He held a grudge against Ran Min for not listening to his bitter words and resulting in a disastrous defeat, so he refused to be called on the excuse that the wound had not healed.Although Ran Min was very angry about this, but the national crisis was imminent, he had no choice but to put down his airs and go to Wang Tai's house to ask for advice on the strategy of the battle.When Ran Min walked to Wang Tai, Wang Tai lay motionless on the bed, emphasizing repeatedly how poor his health was.Ran Min was so bored, he trembled with anger when he returned to the palace, and said to the ministers beside him angrily: "Banu Wangtai, can't I win the battle without you? Just wait and see! Wait until I eliminate you!" Liu Xian will let you see the King of Hades again!" After speaking, the officers and soldiers were ordered to go to battle immediately.Ran Min did what he said, and after defeating Liu Xian, he killed Wang Tai on the charge of defection.

After Liu Xian was defeated by Ran Min, he secretly sent someone to tell Ran Min that he was willing to kill Shi Zhi to make atonement.When Ran Min returned to Yecheng, Liu Xian really sent over the heads of a dozen people including Shi Zhi and Dazai Zhao Shu.In order to praise Liu Xian, Ran Min named him Da Chanyu and Jizhou Mu.Two months later, Liu Xian fell out with Ran Min again and led his troops to attack Yecheng again. After being defeated by Ran Min, he returned to Xiangguo and proclaimed himself emperor.In February of the following year, Liu Xian led his troops to attack Changshan.Ran Min originally hated Liu Xian's capriciousness and proclaiming himself emperor, but now he is provoking again, how can he tolerate it!Ran Min asked Prince Ran Zhi to stay in Yecheng, and personally led 8,000 cavalry to rescue Changshan.As soon as the battle was fought, Ran Min defeated Liu Xian, took advantage of the victory to conquer Xiangguo, killed Liu Xian and more than 100 civil and military officials entrusted by Liu Xian, and moved all the residents of Xiangguo to Yecheng. Set fire to burn Xiangguo City to ashes.

Just as Ran Min returned to Yecheng, Murong Jun, the former Lord of Yan, had captured You and Ji, and sent General Murong Ke to send troops to Jizhou.Jizhou is Ran Wei's sphere of influence, Ran Min is not willing to let Qian Yan get involved, so he prepares to lead troops to clean up Murong Ke.General Dong Run and Chariot General Zhang Wen expected that Ran Wei would be defeated, so they said to Ran Min: "Xianbei people take advantage of the victory to march, how can we be his opponents! Besides, we are outnumbered and we are obviously at a disadvantage. Dodge the sharp edge for a while, and when their morale is low, we will add more troops and fight them." Ran Min was furious when he heard this, and said, "I want to use these troops to pacify Youzhou and cut off Murong Jun's head. Now If I want to run away from Murong Ke, what will people say about me?" After saying that, he ordered troops to be dispatched.Seeing that Ran Min insisted on going his own way, Situ Liu Mao said in grief and indignation: "We are going to die! Rather than being slaughtered and humiliated, it is better to commit suicide and get clean." So they all committed suicide.

The suicides of Liu Mao and others did not change Ran Min's mind. He still forced officers and soldiers to rush to the battlefield without stopping.At first, Ran Min won consecutive battles. Later, because Murong Ke changed the battle plan, Ran Min couldn't adapt for a while, and was surrounded by the former Yan cavalry.Ran Min straddled his horse and swung a double-edged sword, beheading more than 300 Yan soldiers in a row, and finally rushed out of the encirclement.But due to the sudden death of the horse, Ran Min fell off the horse and was captured by Yan soldiers. When Ran Min was sent to Jicheng, Murong Jun asked him to stand in front of him, and scolded him like a grandson: "You want to be emperor like a slave?!" Ran Min didn't know where he got so much courage, He raised his head and said confidently: "The world is in chaos, even you barbarians want to be emperor, let alone I am a hero for a while, why can't I be called emperor!" Murong Jun trembled with anger when he heard this, raised his whip and whipped him. 300 strokes, and then sent someone to send him to Longcheng (now Chaoyang, Liaoning).In May of the eighth year of Yonghe (352 A.D.), Ran Min was killed in the Murong's Ancestral Temple in Longcheng.