About Chapter 61 Story Introduction: After the fall of the Former Qin Empire, the five kingdoms of the northern land stood side by side, among which the Houyan Empire, which occupied the Guanzhong region, was the most powerful, and after the Houyan Emperor Murong Chui completely pacified the Kanto region, he aimed the spearhead of the attack at the increasingly powerful Xianbei Tuoba Division, Murong Trai overrode public opinion, and ordered the prince Murong Bao and others to lead an army of 100,000 to the north to attack the Northern Wei regime established by the Xianbei Tuoba Division. The fiasco of the Houyan army, so that Murong Chui was very angry, under the persuasion of Murong Bao, Murong Chui personally led the army, once again to conquer the Northern Wei regime, the result of the march to Shenhepi, Murong Chui saw the tragic situation of the corpses of the Houyan army that had conquered the Northern Wei Dynasty, old tears, fainted and fell to the ground, the bedridden Murong Chui had to order the class, a generation of heroes Murong Chui died of illness on the way to withdraw the army, and his prince Murong Bao inherited the throne, but at this time after the defeat of the Battle of Shenhepi, the Houyan Empire began to decline.

In this story,

Regarding the contention between the Northern Wei regime and the Later Yan Empire around the Kwantung region, many people now think that the old age of the Later Yan Empire Emperor Murong Chui was the key factor that led to the complete defeat of the Northern Wei regime by the Later Yan Empire. Whether the fortunes of the country will last forever or not depends entirely on the development of the entire historical trend. The fall of the Later Yan Empire is the trend of the times, and it is impossible for Murong Chui to change substantially because of the level of his political and military ability and age.

Therefore, I think that whether Tuoba is too young, or Murong Trai is too old, this is not the key to the victory of these two regimes in the battle for hegemony, just in the battle of Shenhepi, we can analyze the clues, if Murong Trai personally led the troops to the north, Tuoba Gui will use the routine of the strong wall to avoid its edge, Murong Trai may not be able to have any way to crack this tactic, I think at most after Murong Trai ran for thousands of miles, after eliminating some small forces of the Xianbei Tuoba Division, he finally had to run out of ammunition and food. Walk away. If Murong Chui could live a few more years, there might be more tug-of-war between the two sides, but this endless tug-of-war would only gradually weaken the national strength of the Later Yan Empire, and eventually drag the Later Yan Empire down, while in contrast, the loss of the Northern Wei regime in a nomadic lifestyle was much smaller than that of the Later Yan Empire, so the Northern Wei regime was bound to win the hegemony with the Later Yan Empire.

In fact, since ancient times, the Central Plains Dynasty's war against the nomads was not in the victory of a certain battle, and gained complete control of the northern Mongolian steppe, in this historical period, the Houyan Empire established by Murong Chui was not even half of the Central Plains Dynasty, at best it was just a local regime occupying the Guanzhong region, and there was actually no good method and strategy for the Xianbei Tuoba tribe that was still in a state of nomadic life, not to mention that at this time, the Xianbei Murong tribe had entered the mode of settled life on a large scale. The production and lifestyle of the Xianbei Tuoba tribe has gradually drifted away, the struggle between the two tribes is completely similar to the war between the sedentary peoples and the nomads, and it is by no means a battle victory that can affect the power of the nomads on the Mongolian steppe in the north, in fact, the Han-Hungarian War in the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty throughout the history of the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty, until the middle and late stages of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the overlord of the northern Mongolian steppe Xiongnu ethnic group began to gradually disintegrate, and its ethnic groups either moved westward or southward, so it is said, It is completely unrealistic for the Later Yan Empire, whose national strength is far behind that of the Han Dynasty, to defeat the Xianbei Tuoba Division, the overlord of the grasslands similar to the Xiongnu, in a single battle, and according to what we said before, when the nomadic regime completes sinicization, it is difficult to resist the attack of other nomads militarily, and culturally, it is even more difficult to stop the infiltration of the Han ancestors.

Then, the Xianbei Murong Department, which successively established the former Yan regime and the Later Yan regime, basically completed the sinicization at this time, while the Xianbei Tuoba Department was still in the process of starting to sinicize or continuing to sinicize, so although the Xianbei Murong Department and the Xianbei Tuoba Department both belong to the Xianbei ethnic group, but because the living areas of these two tribes are different, their development processes are also different, so the production and living patterns of the Tuoba and Murong tribes of the same Xianbei ethnic group have long been very different by the end of the Sixteen Kingdoms period, and even formed a completely opposite state of existence. The Later Yan regime established by the Xianbei Murong tribe, which was in a settled life mode, was inevitably defeated militarily to the Northern Wei regime established by the Xianbei Tuoba tribe in a nomadic lifestyle, and it had little to do with the age of the people at the helm of the Later Yan regime.

It can be seen that the result of the Battle of Shenhepi is also in line with the historical trend of ethnic integration during the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, because the Later Yan Empire established by the Xianbei Murong Department is bound to withdraw from the historical stage under the blows of other nomads, and the Battle of Shenhepi just laid the groundwork for the rapid collapse of the Later Yan Empire. Throughout the history of our country, the victors of those decisive battles often conform to the development of the entire historical trend, but there are also extremely special circumstances, but this special situation also only slows down the process of the historical trend and absolutely does not change the direction of the historical trend.

For example, the Battle of Guandu during the Three Kingdoms period, which is talked about by people today. As a result of this war, the landlord class of the scholar nationality represented by Yuan Shao, who should have obtained the right to rule the Central Plains Dynasty, was suppressed by the Shu landlord class represented by Cao Cao in stages, so that Cao Cao, who represented the fundamental interests of the landlord class of the Shu nationality, laid the foundation for the unification of the northern region. The Shi landlord class represented by the Sima Yi family finally usurped the dominant position of the Cao Wei regime in the Gaopingling Incident and gained control of the Central Plains Dynasty, and the Shi landlord class rightly became the ruling class of the feudal dynasty. The Three Kingdoms period is exactly like this, although the Three Kingdoms period is the transition period of the ruling class of China's feudal society from the aristocratic landlord class to the scholar landlord class, but the regime established by Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Liu Bei is the Shu landlord class that became the ruling class after the Sui and Tang dynasties. At the same time, it also exposed the defects of the lack of political ability of the scholar landlord class, which should have become the ruling class logically, so the Three Kingdoms period is also called an episode in history by our current scholars.

However, it is precisely because of the lack of political ability of the Shi landlord class that the land of China has continuously staged the situation of the coexistence of the three kingdoms or even several countries, and it is only about 300 years, just after the Shu landlord class became the ruling class, the time of a feudal dynasty in the history of our country, the era of the Shi landlord class as the ruling class of the feudal dynasty has come to an end, and the bloody period of national integration caused by the lack of ruling ability of the Shi landlord class has come to an end. In the historical period of the Shu landlord class as the ruling class, although there have been more than 1,000 years, there has never been such a chaotic and changeable historical stage in the history of our country as in the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms. This kind of national integration in a peaceful way is of course historical progress, and we can also see that the Shu landlord class as the ruling class of feudal society is the most capable ruling class in the feudal society period of our country, and we can also see that the Shu landlord class can represent the interests of the people of all ethnic groups to the greatest extent in the feudal society. Therefore, the Shu landlord class has become the ruling class most recognized by the people in the feudal association, and the imperial examination system that produced the Shu landlord class has also continued until the end of China's feudal society.

We take the battle of Shenhepi as the beginning of the third stage of the bloody period of national integration, because the Northern Wei regime established by the Xianbei Tuoba Department completely completed the unification of the northern region and is regarded by us as the end of the basic completion of the integration period of the Sixteen Kingdoms period, at the same time, the later Northern Wei Dynasty carried out the sinicization reform under the auspices of the Empress Dowager of Civilization and Emperor Xiaowen, and we also regard it as the final stage of the bloody period of national integration, that is, the beginning of the period when the various tribes of the nomadic people entered the final completion of the national integration period. Moreover, the Guanlong aristocratic group formed at the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty is regarded by us as a political group in which the ruling class of feudal society transitions from the scholar landlord class to the Shu landlord class, so although the Northern Wei Dynasty is not included in the list of the Sixteen Kingdoms, it has an extremely important role in the history of the Sixteen Kingdoms period.

The smoke of the battle of Shenhepi dissipated, the national hero of the Xianbei Murong Department Murong Chui drove west with infinite regret on the way to the pro-expedition, and the newly succeeded Houyan Emperor Murong Bao could not resist the footsteps of the Xianbei Tuoba Department going south, and the Houyan Empire could only survive under the iron hooves of the brothers of the same clan, and when the Xianbei Tuoba Department entered the Central Plains region, it was natural to envy his brothers of the same clan who could enjoy the happiness brought by the settled life so early, so when the Xianbei Tuoba Department began to enter the Kanto region, The Xianbei Tuoba tribes, who were still in a primitive nomadic state of life, naturally wanted to speed up the pace of sinicization, and keep up with their brothers and Han ancestors in the fastest time.