Chapter 124 Chapter 123 Xianwu Emperor Murongde

Murongde, courtesy name Xuanming, was a native of the Xianbei tribe. He was the youngest son of Murong Hao, the former Lord of Yan. He was born in the second year of Xiankang in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (336 A.D.).Murong De is strong and tall, handsome, well-read, courageous and resourceful, modest and prudent, and very likable. Murongde has served successively as governor of Youzhou and general of Zuowei since he was named Liang Gong by former Yan Lord Murong Jun at the age of 18.After Murong Riwei succeeded to the throne, he was renamed King Fanyang, and soon moved to Wei Yin, adding Sanqi as a regular attendant.His talent and foresight were quickly revealed.

In the fourth year of Taihe (369 A.D.), the great Sima Huanwen of the Eastern Jin Dynasty led his troops to attack Yan, defeated the Yan army at Huangxu, and entered Fangtou, shaking the city of Ye, the capital of Yan.The former Yan Junchen was very panicked and planned to move the capital to Helong.Murong De and Murong Chui fought hard to resist, led their troops to defeat the Jin army, forced Huanwen and Liang to retreat, and ran to Xiangyi (now Sui County, Henan Province), where they were flanked by Murong De and Murong Chui's cavalry who were in an ambush in advance. , more than 30,000 people were killed or injured.

After Murong Chui defeated the Jin army, his reputation rose greatly, which aroused the jealousy of the Taifu Murong Ping and the Queen Mother Kezuhun, and they conspired to put him to death.Murong Chui was forced to defect to Fu Jian, and Murong De was also implicated and dismissed from office. Since Murong Chui was forced to leave, the former Yan regime was under the control of Empress Dowager Kezuhun and Tai Fu Murong Ping. The officials were corrupt and the people were resentful. The situation was getting worse day by day. , was destroyed by Fu Jian.More than 40,000 households of monarchs, ministers and common people were moved to Chang'an.Fu Jian advocated that Yi and Di should live in harmony, and that all ethnic groups should be treated equally. Therefore, the former Yan monarchs and ministers were appointed as Qin's civil servants and generals, and Murongde was appointed as the prefect of Zhangye.

In the eighth year of Taihe (383 A.D.), Fu Jian thought that the time was ripe and aggressively attacked Jin.Unexpectedly, in the battle of Feishui, the Qin army was defeated miserably.Fu Jian fled back to Huaibei alone, collected more than a thousand remnants along the way, and defected to the only intact Murongchui tribe at that time.Murong De urged Murong Chui to "take advantage of Qin's weakness and pursue it", but Murong Chui did not accept it.After arriving in Xingyang, Murong De persuaded Murong Chui to raise troops to return to Yan, but was not accepted. Following Fu Jian on his way back to Chang'an, Murong Chui finally decided to start the operation of restoring the country after careful consideration.After obtaining Fu Jian's consent in Mianchi, he left the former Qin team and traveled eastward. After a month of preparation, he was proclaimed King Yan in Xingyang in the first month of the ninth year of Taiyuan (384 A.D.), with Murong De as the general of chariots and cavalry, and was granted the title of King of Yan. King Fan Yang participated in political affairs.After two years of fighting, he finally gained a firm footing.In the first month of the eleventh year of Taiyuan (386 A.D.), Murong Chui ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, formally establishing Houyan.Murong De was appointed as Minister of the Book, and he was the prime minister, playing a pivotal role.

Later Yan quickly wiped out the power of the former Qin Dynasty in Guandong, and pacified the regime of Ding Lingzhai and Wei Wei who ruled Henan.In October of the seventeenth year of Taiyuan (392 A.D.), the monarchs and ministers began to discuss the issue of crusade against Xiyan.At that time, Murong Yong, the lord of Xiyan, had 100,000 soldiers, and the generals doubted whether they could swallow this piece of fat, and suggested that we will talk about it later.Murong Chui was about to listen to this opinion. Murong De stood up and resisted all opinions and said: "Murong Yong, as the imperial family of Yan, has usurped the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, and confuses people's hearts. We must resolutely eliminate it and let everyone listen. Now the time is urgent. Although the soldiers are tired, there is a saying in the Art of War that 'use them as a last resort', so how can you not attack them?" Murong Chui laughed loudly after hearing this, and said: "Your opinion is the same as mine. Although I am old, but With all my abilities, it is enough to destroy Xiyan. I can't keep it to make my descendants suffer! This is my policy!" Immediately, troops were sent to attack Xiyan.In August of the following year, he captured the eldest son of Xiyan's capital and destroyed Xiyan.The power of Houyan reached its peak, and Murongde contributed a lot.

In the 20th year of Taiyuan (395 A.D.), Murong Chui did not listen to Murong De's opinion and went to the Northern Wei Dynasty. As a result, he was defeated in Canhebei.Participating in the Battle of Hebei, most of the Yan army's elite lost, and the power balance with Wei had changed, but Yan Lord Murong Chui was unwilling to admit this reality.In March of the following year, he went out again to conquer the Northern Wei Dynasty.Tuoba Tao saw that it was coming fiercely, and he was unwilling to confront the Yan army head-on, so he led the main force to avoid it, leaving Chen Liugong Tuobaqian to guard Pingcheng.Tuobaqian was arrogant and careless, and the Yan army was able to capture Pingcheng smoothly.Murong Chui passed by Canhebei on his way out of Pingcheng, and seeing the mountains of bones and the bleak wind, he hurriedly set up a memorial service. The soldiers remembered their father, brother and fellow countrymen who died in the battle last year, and wept bitterly together.Murong Chui was ashamed and angry, he spat out a few mouthfuls of blood, and suddenly his old illness relapsed.On the tenth day of April, when I walked to Juyang in Shanggu (now Huailai, Hebei Province), Murong Chui was dying, and he was still worried at the end of his life. After Yan Jiangshan struggled, he said to his son Murong Bao: "Yecheng is the old capital of Yan Kingdom. Be sure to hand it over to Murongde, the king of Fanyang, to guard it!" After saying that, he died.

After Murong Bao succeeded to the throne, according to his will, Murong De was the governor of the six states of Ji, Yan, Qing, Xu, Jing, and Henan, the general of chariots, the shepherd of Jizhou, and Zhenye (now Linzhang, Hebei).In fact, the burden of defending the southern territory of Houyan was handed over to Murongde. At this moment, the crisis had quietly come to Hou Yan's head.In July of this year, Tuoba Tao of the Northern Wei Dynasty proclaimed himself emperor.In August, Wei attacked Yan with 400,000 cavalry.By October, it had swept through most of Shanxi and Hebei, and divided into three groups to attack the three strategic towns of Zhongshan, Xindu, and Yecheng, the capital of Houyan.Duke Tuobayi of Wei Dongping led 50,000 troops to attack Ye. Murong De sent Murong Qi and others to use the cover of night to attack the forward camp of the Wei army out of the city. The Wei army was frustrated and retreated to the new city.

In December, Wei sent Liaoxi Gonghe Lailu to lead 20,000 cavalry to help Tuobayi attack the city.Murong De sent Liu Zao, who joined the army, to Chang'an to seek help from Yao Xing, the emperor of the later Qin Dynasty, but Yao Xing did not send rescue troops for a long time.Seeing that people's hearts were fluctuating, Murong De personally supervised the city defense and comforted the soldiers.When the soldiers saw that the commander took the lead, they all expressed their willingness to repay him with death and stick to Yecheng.At this time, there was a conflict within the Wei army. He Lailu thought he was Tuoba Tao's uncle and did not want to be commanded by Tuoba Yi, so the two had a dispute.Siming Jian of Tuoba Yi had a secret relationship with Murong De long ago, and took the opportunity to sow dissension and expand the conflict.He also shot a letter into Yecheng with an arrow and reported the news to Murongde.On the sixth day of the first lunar month in the first year of Long'an (397 A.D.), the wind was howling and the dust was flying.Ding Jian saw the fire in He Lailu's camp, so he said to Tuoba Yi: "Lailu burned the camp, and launched a mutiny." Tuoba Yi believed it, and hurriedly retreated.When He Lailu learned that Tuobayi had retreated, he also withdrew.Ding Jianshi led his team into the city to surrender to Yan, and said that Tuobayi's troops were exhausted and would be defeated in one blow. Murong De immediately sent Murong Zhen, Murong Qing and others to lead cavalry to pursue them, and they defeated the Wei army.

Just as the defense of Yecheng was victorious, the situation in Houyan's other two strategic towns couldn't have been worse.Xindu was the first to fall in the first month, and in March, Zhongshan, the capital, was also abandoned. Yan Lord Murong Bao and others fled to Longcheng, whereabouts are unknown. At this time, Murongde's subordinates persuaded him to proclaim himself emperor.Murong De knew that the time was not yet ripe, so he pretended to be humble.Not long after, someone came back from Longcheng, saying that the Lord of Yan, Murong Bao, was still alive, and the idea of ​​proclaiming himself emperor was shelved.Immediately thereafter came Murong Bao's will: enter Murong De as prime minister and lead Jizhou shepherd.In fact, the mess in the Central Plains was handed over to Murong De to clean up.As a result, Murongde became the supreme commander in the southern area of ​​Houyan, and had the power to appoint officials and confer titles on his own.

Murongde was the veteran and important minister of Houyan, and he won the great victory in Yecheng when Houyan was in danger. He was already worth a hundred times, but now he has the legal right to worship himself, so he has naturally become a figure that everyone expects.Since Lord Yan had gone far to Liaodong, the remnants of the Murong tribe scattered all over the place gathered around Murongde one after another.Even Murong Lin, who once established himself as emperor in Zhongshan, defected to Yecheng after being defeated by the Wei army.In order to gather talents and expand his influence, Murong De also tried his best to win over old generals and new ministers, select talents and appoint talents, and treat them equally.

However, Yecheng is isolated and helpless after all, and the Wei army has increased its troops and generals, preparing to make a comeback, obviously it cannot stay for long.Not long after Muronglin arrived in Yecheng, he felt that Yecheng was in a dangerous situation, so he suggested to Murongde that before the Wei army came to attack, he should quickly cross the Yellow River south and transfer to Huatai (now Huaxian County, Henan).After Murongde arrived at the sliding platform, he proclaimed himself emperor with the support of his ministers.Nanyan was built with the sliding platform as its capital. Not long after Murong Degang proclaimed himself emperor, Fu Guang, the former general of the Qin Dynasty, proclaimed himself the King of Qin, and rebelled against Yan in Qihuobao, defeating the general of Yan, Murong Zhong.Some speculators joined Fu Guang one after another.At this time, there were no ten cities in Murongde, and the population was only tens of thousands. The capital city was between the Jin and Wei Dynasties, and the situation was very dangerous.In order to stabilize the situation, Murong De had to personally lead an army to attack Fu Guang, leaving General Murong He to stay on the skating platform.Just as the battle ahead was quickly won and Fu Guang was defeated and killed, Yan's backyard caught fire.It turned out that when Muronghe's counselor Li Bian saw Murongde going out to fight, he persuaded Muronghe to rebel, but Muronghe resolutely refused, so Li Bian murdered him and sent him to the Northern Wei Dynasty with a sliding platform as a gift. In the city.When the frontline generals heard about this, they were all very anxious. Murong De was about to use all his strength to regain the slippery platform. General Murong Yun had already killed Li Bian and led more than 20,000 family members of the Yan army to rush out of the slippery platform city to join the Yan army.So Murong De called a group of ministers to discuss where to go.Murong Zhong and others advocated to recapture the skating platform. Han Fan said: "Master Wei has already entered the skating platform, and the host and guest are reversed. We should not attack the skating platform again. We should take another side and try to make progress." Zhang Hua suggested: "Pengcheng is dangerous. Yin can be used as a base." Shangshu Pan Cong thought: "The slippery platform extends in all directions, connecting the Great Wei in the north and the Qiang Qin in the west. It is not the residence of the emperor. Pengcheng is the old town of Jin, and the rivers are criss-crossing. Water battles are not mine. The director is not a place of long-term security. Only Qingzhou has fertile land, a radius of 2,000 miles, a household of more than 100,000, dangerous passes, and a rich seashore. Inherently there are mountains and rivers, the situation is dangerous, and it is the capital of the emperor. If you can occupy Qingzhou, gain a foothold in Guanggu, recharge your energy, and wait for opportunities, it will be like the relationship between Hanoi and Hanoi. It is Yan's old minister, we first sent lobbyists to persuade him to surrender, and then sent a large army to attack, with two prongs, taking Qingzhou is like cutting vegetables." After hearing this, Murong De agreed very much, and then ordered to rectify his luggage and sent his troops to the south.Xiao Xing stayed overnight all the way, but did not encounter any trouble.After entering Shandong, all counties and counties in the north of Yanzhou surrendered one after another. Murongde set up officials one by one to appease him and forbid the soldiers to rob and harass.The people were naturally happy that they could live in peace, and people everywhere put wine and meat on the road to express their welcome and condolences to the Yan army. Murongde also ordered Murong Zhong to send a call to the counties of Qingzhou to denounce the governor of Qingzhou, Pi Luhun.Seeing that the Yan army was approaching, Piluhun moved more than 8,000 households to garrison Guanggu.After receiving the appeal, the counties surrendered to the Yan army one after another.Seeing that the general situation was over, Piluhun had to take his wife and children to the Northern Wei Dynasty and went to Ju County, where Yan general Liu Gang chased him and became a ghost under the sword.The Yan army successfully controlled the entire territory of Shandong and marched into Guanggu. According to the established policy, Murongde designated Guanggu (now northwest of Qingzhou City, Shandong) as the capital of Nanyan, and held a formal enthronement ceremony in the southern suburbs, announced amnesty, and changed the Yuan to Jianping. After ascending the throne, it is inevitable to redistribute power.In order to publicize the grace of the new emperor, Murongde specially sent Feng Kai, the Minister in charge of finance, and Feng Yu, the Minister of Zhongshu, who was in charge of confidentiality, to various places to inspect the people's conditions and condolences to the soldiers.Then, a school officer in charge of education was set up, and 200 bureaucrat children below the ministerial level and gentry children below the second rank were selected as Tai students to start training the bureaucratic reserve army. After Murong De proclaimed himself king and emperor in the hometown of Qilu, he and his neighbors lived in peace for the time being. In the Eastern Jin government in the south, there were Jing and Yang gangs fighting each other for power and fighting each other. Outside, Sun En and Lu Xun rebelled. , The court was in such a state of embarrassment that it had no time to look north.Tuoba Tao in the north, after annexing Youji and the states of Henan, is busy consolidating the interior, moving the capital to proclaim himself emperor, and waging wars on the west and north fronts.Therefore, Nan Yan was able to live a peaceful life in the cracks for several years. In October of the second year of Jianping (400 A.D.), there was nothing wrong with the country, and Murongde held a banquet in Yanxian Hall.The Yunmen aged wine specially brewed for the palace and Lanling fine wine were carried up one after another. You can enjoy all kinds of Qilu famous dishes and the roast beef and mutton that Xianbei people love.After getting a little bit drunk, Murong De couldn't help being a little proud of himself for being able to create such a foundation in a troubled time.He stroked his beard and said with a slight smile: "Although I am superficial, I am neither arrogant nor impetuous. I am always vigilant. What kind of emperors do you think I am compared to in ancient times?" !” Ju Zhong, governor of Qingzhou, stood up immediately to flatter him.Murong De said very frankly: "A thousand pieces of silk will be rewarded." Ju Zhong hurriedly gave in, but Murong De said: "You can joke with me, but can't I play jokes with you? Qing has made mistakes and answered falsely, so I also use lies Reward each other, why thank you!" The two answered casually without paying attention.Unexpectedly, Han Fan, the servant of Zhongshu, recognized the truth, and stood up solemnly and said: "I heard that the emperor has no jokes, and loyal ministers have no wrongdoing. Today's theory is that the upper and lower are deceiving each other. It can be said that both the monarch and the ministers have lost." These words reminded me all at once. Murongde, so he immediately became serious, and ordered to give Han Fanjuan 50 horses as a reward.Because of Murong De's humility to accept advice, the court's flattery was greatly reduced, and more and more people dared to speak out and criticize. Murong De's mother and elder brother, Murong Rong, have been in Chang'an all the time. Ever since Murong De became emperor, he wanted them to come and enjoy the blessings.On this day, Murongde sent a man named Du Hong to Chang'an to inquire about the news.Du Hong said: "When I arrive in Chang'an, if I don't get any news from the Queen Mother, I will go all the way west to Zhangye to look for it. Even if I risk my life, I must find out the whereabouts. But my father, Du Xiong, is over 60 years old and hasn't gotten any information yet. I beg your Majesty to reward him as a county magistrate, and I have done my best to be a son." Zhongshu ordered Zhang Hua to jump up and said, "Du Hong has not yet left, but he stretched out his hand to ask for an official. He is greedy for profit. This person cannot be used. But Murong De didn't think so. He wanted to make a fuss about the Confucianism of loyalty and filial piety, so he said, "I just want to recruit people who value righteousness with money that I don't care about. Du is willing to die in return and find relatives for me. How can I be stingy with official salary! What's more, he is asking for salary for his father. On the surface, it seems that he is reaching out for profit, but in fact he is loyal and filial." So Du Xiong was made the county magistrate of Pingyuan.Later, Du Hong went all the way from Chang'an to Zhangye, but unfortunately he was killed by thieves.When the news spread to Guanggu, Murongde was very sad, and specially ordered Du Hong's wife to be compensated generously. Murong De knew very well that if the domestic economic situation was not improved, Nanyan would never be able to gain a stable foothold.For this reason, he ordered the establishment of copper mining in Shangshan (now Zibo, Shandong), and established a copper official order.A salt official was also set up in Wuchangze (now Shouguang, Shandong) to manage salt production.At the beginning, in order to calm people's hearts and consolidate the regime, he adopted the policy of "observance and support". For the Hebei tyrants who followed the army to the south and their dependent population, because they were the basic force for the survival of the regime, they were exempted from taxes and corvee for a long time. privileges, so that they can take root and grow strong in their new lands.For the local indigenous tyrants and their dependent population, the status quo will also be maintained, and their interests will not be touched.Over the past few years, the situation has stabilized, but the problems of concealing household registration and evading tax and labor have become more and more serious.One day, Shangshu Han Juzhuo finally went to Shushu to raise a question that everyone had already felt.He said: "Your Majesty's policy of following and not disturbing you can only keep you safe in Yingqiu, and it is difficult to manage Qinyue. Now there are Wei in the north, Jin in the south, and Qin in the west. They are all wolves." The generation of the Chinese people is spying on our country all the time. We must raise our troops, expand our farms and accumulate food, advance to avenge the enemy, and retreat to preserve Qilu rivers and mountains. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the disadvantages of concealing and omitting household registration have been accumulated for a long time. The family is collectively called one household, or thousands of people report a household registration, and rely on the village community in the Walled City, blatantly evading state taxation and corvee, committing adultery, committing crimes, breaking the law and discipline, and even fearing government raids. The current plan should be to check the household registration and rectify Household registration, so that the omission of the household registration is re-registered as a government registered household, so as to expand the source of troops and increase income." Murongde couldn't help nodding his head in agreement with this remark, and immediately sent the chariot general Murongzhen to lead 3,000 cavalry to patrol along the border to strictly guard against The hidden family fled; and Han Zhuo was sent to check the household registration in various counties and counties.After a lot of fanfare and investigation work, the results are remarkable.At that time, the total registered household population in the Qilu area was no more than 100,000 households, and 58,000 hidden households were detected this time.After this investigation, the population controlled by the government has increased, and Nanyan's national power has also been greatly enhanced. Southern Yan was thriving, but Eastern Jin was in decline, and internal conflicts intensified.In order to usurp power, Huan Xuan punished dissidents wantonly.Soon, it was heard that Huan Xuan had failed.Murong De immediately ordered Murong Town as the forward, Murong Zhong as the governor, with 20,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, and set off recently.At this moment, an unexpected event happened, which made Murong De unable to get sick, so he had to stop fighting. It turned out that Zhao Rong, an old subordinate of Murong De, suddenly came to Guanggu from Chang'an, and brought the sad news that both Murong De's mother and brother had died.Murong De was overwhelmed with grief and cried a lot.Unexpectedly, I have been overworked for these years, my body is weak, and I can't stand this stimulation. I even vomited a few mouthfuls of blood and fell ill from then on.This disease does not matter, not only the matter of conquering Jin had to be abandoned, but also aroused some people's ambition to seize power. Seeing that Murong De fell ill, Murong Da, captain of Sili School, thought that the opportunity had come, and attempted to usurp power. He sent General Yamen and his troops to attack Duanmen, and Hou Chimei, the master of the palace, opened the door to respond.Seeing that the situation was not good, Sun Jin of the Zhonghuang sect rushed to help Murongde over the wall of the palace city and hid in his home.Minister Duan Hong and others heard that there was a change in the palace, and immediately led troops to guard the four city gates, and then Murongde personally led the guards into the palace to punish Marquis Chimei.Seeing that the situation was over, Murong Da defected to the Northern Wei Dynasty. Soon there was another peasant uprising.Several accidents happened one after another, which made Murongde's mood very bad, and his condition became worse day by day.The 70-year-old emperor has no children so far, and when he thinks about what happened behind him, he can't help feeling a little anxious.In April of the seventh year of Jianping (AD 405), his nephew Murong Chao returned to Guanggu from Chang'an. Murong De was very happy, and immediately named Murong Chao the King of Beihai, Shizhong, General Hushi, and Sili Captain.In August, Murong De's condition turned critical. In order to prevent others from coveting the throne, he issued an imperial edict to make Murong Chao the Crown Prince.That night, Murong De passed away.In order to keep it strictly confidential and prevent the tomb from being robbed in the future, more than 10 identical coffins were specially used, real and fake, transported out of the city from 4 city gates overnight, and buried in the valley secretly, so that future generations did not know Where are the emperor's bones buried?Murongde reigned for 6 years and was given the posthumous title of "Emperor Xianwu".