Chapter 47 Chapter 47: The Unbelievable Defeat

Ran Min, who called himself Emperor Wei, became a prisoner of Murong Jun, the head of the Xianbei Murong tribe who called himself Emperor Yan.One day, Murong Jun asked: "You are a servant, why do you call yourself an emperor?" To this, Ran Min replied: "The world is in chaos, and even you barbarians and di animals call themselves emperors. Why can't I, a hero, call myself an emperor?" Woolen cloth!" After hearing this, Murong Jun was furious, whipped Ran Min three hundred times, and then killed him.Knowing that it will anger the other party, he dared to scold the other party as a barbarian or a beast. This shows how thorough Ran Min's "Chinese thought" is.The fact that he killed all the Shi clan and the Jie clan, the ruling class of the later Zhao Dynasty, has been mentioned above.It is said that Han people with taller noses were killed by mistake at that time.From this, it can be speculated that the Jie people belonging to the Southern Xiongnu have the national characteristic of a slightly higher nose.

The reason why Ran Min acted violently probably came from Shi Hu's time. The Han people were once despised, so they wanted to retaliate.No matter its name is Shi Hu or Ran Min, once it harbors ethnic prejudice or different ideas, its regime will accelerate its demise due to lack of harmony. However, is it better to have national tolerance? Tolerance is indeed the ideal form.However, the existence of prejudice or different concepts among ethnic groups is a practical problem. Those who are in charge of political affairs should understand the practical problems and consider their actions.The result of ignoring practical problems is inevitable to embark on the road of extinction.

Fu Jian of the former Qin Dynasty is the best example. Fu Hong, the head of the Di tribe in Tibet, was originally under the command of Later Zhao Shihu, but his son Fu Jian took advantage of the fall of Later Zhao to establish himself in Chang'an. He was called the "Former Qin"; "Former Yan" and the "Former Qin" of the Western Di tribe were two major forces.After Fu Jian died, his son Fu Sheng became the Heavenly King, but because this man was a lawless tyrant, his cousin Fu Jian overthrew him and became the Heavenly King himself.This is what happened in AD 357.

At this time, Huanwen of the Eastern Jin Dynasty attempted to launch the Northern Expedition and attack Qianyan.Qianyan Murong  (son of Jun) begged Qianqin Fujian for help. Qianyan was chaotic and lacked harmony.The most prestigious in the country is the royal family Murong Chui, the pillar of the country. However, Murong Ping and others tried to murder him because of jealousy. Murong Chui had no choice but to flee to Fu Jian in the former Qin Dynasty.Afterwards, although Huan Wen's Northern Expeditionary Army was repelled, the former Yan after Murong Chui's return to the country was greatly weakened. Finally, under the trampling of the former Qin's iron hooves, it soon perished, and the young master Murong Fei also became a prisoner.

In the former Qin Dynasty, Fu Jian would not refuse anyone who came from desperation or surrender.An enemy general who is good at fighting in a siege can spare his life and make him join his camp. The former Qin Dynasty unified most of northern China.In fact, this regime rose rapidly under the political and military skills of the Han Prime Minister Wang Meng.Although it was a Di regime, they treated the Xianbei, Xiongnu, Qiang (Tibetan) and Han people under them very favorably. "Unify the world and bring peace to the people" is Fu Jian's ideal.His idealism was rather stronger than his territorial ambitions.In order to unify the world, it is inevitable to conquer the Eastern Jin Dynasty by the Southern Expedition.During the Southern Expedition, Fu Jian prepared to use the Di tribe's most capable army, so he moved the Di tribe's strong army to the east.As a result, the capital of Chang'an was moved out of the Di tribe army, and all the people stationed there were foreign tribes such as the Xianbei Murong army army.

This is an abnormal phenomenon. When the retainers complained about it, Fu Jian replied with a smile: "I have ambitions and ideals. I treat everyone equally, so who would betray me?" How confident he is. Wang Meng, the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, said in his last words when he was dying: "Please don't attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Pay special attention to the Xianbei Murong tribe and the Qiang people." Although Fu Jian wept for Wang Mengzhi's death, he failed to abide by his last words.This is because if the Eastern Jin Dynasty is not overthrown, his ideal of unifying the world cannot be realized.

Why did Wang Meng leave his last words not to fight the Eastern Jin Dynasty? Although it was formed by the union of various ethnic groups, the backbone of the former Qin army was still the Han nationality after all.For the Han people, the Eastern Jin Dynasty is their old club, and this awareness still exists in their hearts.Therefore, once they fight the Eastern Jin Dynasty, their morale cannot be high.However, Fu Jian, the former king of Qin Dynasty, did not think so.He overestimated his own "magnanimity." ——Caring for them to such an extent, no one should betray me. Fu Jian thought so.On the one hand, someone did make him think so.

"When the world is unified, the heavenly kings and heroes will go down in history forever." The exile Murong Chui said this to Fu Jian.Yao Chang, the chief of the Qiang tribe, kowtowed and said: "I dare not make any suggestions to Your Majesty, and everything must be judged by the Holy Judgment. Because the Holy Judgment is absolutely infallible." In order for their tribe to realize their long-cherished wish of self-reliance, the prerequisite is to weaken the national power of the former Qin Dynasty, and the best way to achieve this goal is to make the former Qin Dynasty fight against the Eastern Jin Dynasty where "a thin camel is bigger than a horse".If the former Qin was defeated, they would be able to take advantage of the opportunity to stand on their own; even if the former Qin was victorious, fighting against the Eastern Jin Dynasty would definitely bring huge losses, which would also give them an opportunity to take advantage of it.

In order to unify the world, Fu Jian launched a crusade against the army of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in 383 AD. Fu Jian bestowed an army of 250,000 to his younger brothers Fu Rong, Murong Chui and others, and asked them to set off first.Then, he asked Yao Chang, the leader of the Qiang nationality, to lead 40,000 soldiers and horses from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River down the river.In the end, I personally led 600,000 infantry and 270,000 cavalry and set off from Chang'an. This is an army of hundreds of thousands. Fu Jian was ready to solve the major issue of world domination in one fell swoop.In contrast, the Eastern Jin Dynasty mobilized only 80,000 soldiers, led by Xie Shi, Xie Xuan and others.

The biggest war in the era of confrontation between the North and the South - the Battle of Feishui - started in Yan. In the former Qin army, there was a man named Zhu Xu who was a general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.This man once held Xiangyang firmly, so that the 100,000 troops of the former Qin Dynasty could not cross the thunder pool.Because Fu Jian praised Zhu Xu's good fighting skills, he pardoned Zhu Xu's innocence. Instead, he executed the generals of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the crime of "disloyalty".Zhu Xu was later highly valued in the former Qin Dynasty.

"Surely he will be grateful and loyal to me?" This was Fu Jian's idea.However, although Zhu Xu surrendered, his heart was attached to the Eastern Jin Dynasty.What he never forgets is that he will make military exploits as soon as possible and return to the motherland.And to "make military exploits", of course, refers to a major blow to the former Qin Dynasty. Fu Jian's view was too optimistic. The Eastern Jin army and the former Qin army faced off at the place where Feishui flowed into the Huaihe River.Soon, the front line of the former Qin army began to retreat slowly. "This is a trick to lure the enemy..." Fu Jian said. "Will the enemy army really fall into the trap?" Some staff members are skeptical that the strategy will work.Fu Jian was also a little hesitant when he first heard it, but Zhu Xu said at this time: "If you pretend that the whole army is retreating, the Eastern Jin army will definitely cross the river and pursue it. The problem is how to make the retreat look realistic. For this..." "For this, what should we do?" Fu Jian immediately asked. "This secret must be strictly guarded. All the generals and soldiers must not know it. They must be made to think that this is a real retreat." "I understand. This is the so-called to deceive others, you must first deceive yourself. Alright, let's proceed according to this secret battle plan!" Fu Jian then decided to lure the enemy to the Eastern Jin Dynasty and issued an order to "retreat the whole army".The only ones who knew the secret were the twenty or so top staff members who participated in the combat meeting. "Great, we can go home!" "Some ministers objected to this expedition!" "Thank God, we've got our old life back." All the generals thought it was a real retreat. Fu Jian boarded the watchtower drawn by horses, shaded the light with his hands, and looked across the Feishui River. "Will the Eastern Jin army get caught?" If the Eastern Jin army starts to cross the river, at the right time, order the former Qin army to turn around suddenly and adopt a general attack posture-this is the planned action.The right timing is naturally the most suitable when the main force of the Eastern Jin Dynasty reaches the middle of the river.If this combat attempt had been seen through, the Eastern Jin army would have stood still. ——Fu Jian held his breath, paying attention to the changes in the situation. "They started to move!" Fu Jian unconsciously said. Perhaps it is considered that the former Qin army was really retreating. After the Eastern Jin army gathered tens of thousands of heads, the vanguard began to cross the river.Fu Jian tightly clenched his right fist.Once this hand is raised high, it is an order to "start counterattack". Three rows of erection bridges made of boats appeared on the river, and the horsemen on it were about to cross the river.It is roughly estimated that there are about 8,000 people on the river alone. "Let's attack!" Fu Jian suddenly raised his right fist high.He expected that the army of one million would suddenly turn around under his command and launch an annihilation operation against the Eastern Jin army.At this time, Fu Jian had already begun to imagine the scene of chasing the defeated Eastern Jin army to Jiankang (Nanjing). ——Taking Jiankang is the first step to unify the world!Fu Jian was extremely excited. However, the expected scene did not appear in front of his eyes.Although he had issued an order, the former Qin army showed no sign of counterattack-they continued to retreat. "Fight back! What are you doing? The main force of the enemy army has reached the river!" Fu Jian shouted loudly.However, the Qin army of a million years ago continued to retreat like an avalanche. In fact, the reason for this situation was that Zhu Xu was riding his horse back and forth between the various formations, and announced loudly: "Retreat! Everyone run away! We have been defeated, those who don't want to die run away!" This is an inexplicable defeat.An army of one million was chased and fled by 80,000 enemy troops without any confrontation at all! "This is how the same thing!" Fu Jian really couldn't believe that such a thing would happen.However, the unbelievable facts were truly presented in front of his eyes.As the commander-in-chief of an army of millions, he couldn't understand what was going on. In fact, this is the reason why Zhu Xu, who was spared by Fu Jian during the battle of Xiangyang, leaked the secrets of the battle to the Eastern Jin Dynasty. ——Although you cross the river to attack, I will invalidate the counterattack order.At that time, the former Qin army will only run away, so you can rest assured to chase after it! In order to make the "counterattack order ineffective", the fewer people who know the secret of retreating as a feigned action, the better. This is why Zhu Xu emphasized the need to strictly keep the secret at the combat conference. Because Zhu Xu yelled everywhere: "Retreat! Everyone, run away! We have been defeated!" Therefore, the whole army immediately lost their will to fight, and everyone fled desperately. The Han generals who originally accounted for the majority of the former Qin army had no intention of fighting against the Eastern Jin army, and it was best to avoid confrontation with the Eastern Jin army of their old team-this was their idea.Hearing the order "run away" in this situation, of course, wished for it, so no matter what happened, everyone ran away with their lives together. This is the result of Zhu Xu's strategy completely matching the war-weariness of most generals. Incorporating the old Eastern Jin general Zhu Sequence into the crusade against the Eastern Jin—this can be said to be a fatal mistake by Fu Jian, right? Zhu Xu directly mingled with the Eastern Jin army who came in pursuit, and his wish to return to the Eastern Jin Dynasty was thus fulfilled.At the same time, because of this achievement, he was appointed General Longxiang of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Fu Jian was shot by a stray arrow during his defeat, but was only slightly injured.He ran away for no reason, and finally managed to get rid of the pursuit of the Eastern Jin army. There was not even a shadow of half of his retainers around him.It wasn't until some time later that the defeated generals and remnants appeared in twos and threes, and the number finally increased to about a thousand. At this time, the former Qin Army had a 30,000-man mobile unit under the command of Murong Chui stationed in a place called Meteor City, and Fu Jian then set off for Meteor City.In name, this unit is the former Qin Army, but in essence it is the unit of the Murong Department of Xianbei. After hearing the news of Fu Jian's defeat in Feishui, the group of people in Yucheng started arguing that "we should take this opportunity to revive the Murong Ministry's regime".It was at this time that Fu Jian arrived with the only thousand remaining defeated generals and remnants. "This is a god-sent opportunity, let's kill Fu Jian and stand on our own!" Murong Chui's son Murong Bao said so, when he saw his father hesitated, he said firmly: "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We cannot forget the importance of the country just because we have received a little kindness!" After hearing this, Murong shook his head and said: "What I received was definitely not a little kindness. At that time, because I was jealous of my people, I had nowhere to go, but Fu Jian treated me like this as a national scholar. When the Han Prime Minister Wang Mengjin said to deal with me, Fu Jian did not listen to him. I will never forget this kindness, and of course I also want to make the Murong tribe independent and revive our dynasty, but we can only go to the Kanto to realize all of this." Fu Jian is already the lord of northern China, and his base is in Chang'an, which is the Kansai area.Murong Chui couldn't bear to seize Fu Jian's base. Fu Jian summoned scattered generals in Luoyang, and the number reached about 100,000.He is going to lead this group of troops back to Chang'an.The departure of a million-strong army from Chang'an took place in August.All of the above happened in just three months.