Chapter 14 Section 4 Eliminate Resistance and Consolidate Innovation

Since the reforms of Empress Dowager Feng and Emperor Xiaowen in the eighth year of Taihe (AD 484), they have encountered strong opposition and resistance from the conservative forces of the Xianbei nobles.However, Empress Dowager Feng and Emperor Xiaowen did not shrink back. They resisted all opinions, persevered, and continued to deepen reforms. Establish a salary system for hundreds of officials, so that honest officials can be subsidized, and corrupt officials can be restrained.This is the first step towards reform.This measure is a powerful restriction on those nobles and officials who embezzle public property and blackmail the people, which arouses their dissatisfaction and resentment.Tuoba, king of Huainan, openly proposed to stop the salary system and restore self-raised expenses.Empress Dowager Feng summoned a group of ministers to criticize him in public and insisted on implementing the salary system.Li Hongzhi, a dignified foreign relative and the governor of Qin and Yizhou, often searched for huge amounts of money.Emperor Xiaowen bestowed him with death.In the fall of the year when the salary system was promulgated, the central government sent officials to inspect various places, and more than 40 guards were sentenced to death for corruption and perverting the law.

The implementation of the three-head system and the abolition of the suzerainty supervision system are a measure for the state to collect household registrations in an organized and planned way, search for budding households, and expand the registration of households to Qimin.This is a heavy blow to the aristocratic family.Zhongshu ordered Zheng Xi and others to think that the three-man system seems to be feasible, but it is difficult to implement in reality.Empress Dowager Feng accused: "If you set up three chiefs, you will have constant standards in class, constant points in gifts, and you can get out of budding households, and you can stop those who are lucky. Why not?" ("Wei Shu·Li Chong Biography") Attitude Resolutely refuted the opposition.

The most intense struggle between Emperor Xiaowen and the conservative forces of the Xianbei aristocracy was moving the capital to Luoyang.Represented by the Mu family, the Lu family, the He family, the Liu family, the Lou family, the Yu family, the Ji family and the Wei family, the high-ranking officials and dignitaries have operated in the capital Pingcheng for more than a hundred years. migrate.In addition, it is not easy to adapt to the customs, lifestyle and even the climate environment when traveling southward from beyond the Great Wall to the Central Plains.When the news of moving the capital reached the capital, everyone was shocked. There were many nobles and bureaucrats who opposed the southward move.Emperor Xiaowen made a special trip back to Pingcheng to persuade the remaining officials to support the southward move.However, Mu Tai, a conservative official in Hengzhou (now northeast of Datong, Shanxi), not only resisted the relocation of the capital, but also planned to launch a rebellion.He, Lu Rui, governor of Dingzhou (now Dingxian County, Hebei Province), and secret merchants such as Anle Hou Yuanlong jointly pushed Wang Yuanyi, governor of Shuozhou (now Helingeran, Inner Mongolia) as the main governor, in an attempt to overthrow Emperor Xiaowen.After hearing the news, Emperor Xiaowen immediately ordered Tuoba Cheng to send troops to Bingzhou (now Jinyuan, Shanxi) and Sizhou (northwest of Xinxian County, Shanxi) to quell the rebellion of Mu Tai and others, ensuring the smooth progress of the plan to move the capital.

After Luoyang was established as the capital, the struggle has not stopped.Unexpectedly, the crown prince Yuan Xun took the lead in opposing the relocation of the capital and opposing reforms.In the seventeenth year of Taihe (AD 493), Yuan Xun, who was 10 years old, was established as the prince.Emperor Xiaowen hoped that he would study hard and learn good skills, so that he could take over the throne in the future.However, Yuan Xun turned a deaf ear to his father's teachings.He is not very old, but he is tall and fat. When summer comes, the weather in Luoyang is scorching, and he can't bear it. He always misses the life in Pingcheng.Therefore, often expressed dissatisfaction with the father.After the order forbidding the wearing of Hu clothes was issued, Emperor Xiaowen gave him some beautiful Han clothes.He threw it aside and put on the Xianbei clothes as usual.The concubine Gao Daoyue persuaded Yuan Xun many times to listen to his father, but he ignored him and held a grudge.In August of the 20th year of Taihe (AD 496), Emperor Xiaowen visited Songshan Mountain in the east.Yuan Xun took the opportunity to kill Gao Daoyue, led some troops and fled to Pingcheng on Qingqi.After Emperor Xiaowen got the news, he turned back to Luoyang on the way, and immediately recalled Yuan Xun to the palace, announced his crime of treason, and deposed him as a commoner.Later, Yuan Xun wanted to defect again, and Emperor Xiaowen gave him death.

Emperor Xiaowen's reform greatly increased the national power of the Northern Wei Dynasty.Therefore, he tried to destroy Nanqi and unify the whole country.Beginning in December of the eighteenth year of Taihe (494 A.D.), the soldiers of the Northern Wei Dynasty were divided into five groups to attack the Southern Qi Dynasty, but failed to return.In February of the 21st year (AD 497), another 200,000 troops were sent to fight again, but they returned without success.In February of the twenty-third year (AD 499), Chen Xianda, a general of the Southern Qi Dynasty, led 40,000 troops to besiege Maquan City (now north of Deng County, Henan Province) in the Northern Wei Dynasty.In March, Emperor Xiaowen led his troops to conquer and defeated the Southern Qi army.After Banshi returned to the court, he died of a serious illness in April at the age of 33.

Emperor Wei Xiaowen reigned for 28 years. He has been in power for eight years.