Chapter 3: The Seed of Beggarhood

Shi Hu, who fought on horseback, naturally would not give up the war after becoming the emperor, and he wanted to expand the territory through the war, and realize his dream of the flame of Ahura Mazda shining in the Central Plains and then occupying the magpie's nest. The expansion front was divided into two fronts, the north and the south.

The opponent on the southern front is naturally the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south.

The opponents on the northern front are mainly the Xianbei three tribes--- Duanshi, Murong clan, and Yuwen clan.

At the same time, the land of the Yan Dynasty in the north also had various ethnic groups and tribes such as Ding Ling, Wuhuan, and Fuyu who moved inward, and they were also the objects of Shihu's conquest.

On the northern front, Shi Hu's soldiers pointed directly at the Xianbei section of Liaobu in western Liaoning. The base area of the Duanbu Xianbei Principality of Liaoxi was mainly in Lingzhi, which roughly corresponded to the northern part of present-day Qian'an, Qianxi and Luanxian in present-day Hebei Province.

Shihu advanced by sea and land, Duan Liao lost more than 40 cities in an instant, and his mother and wife were also captured, so he could only escape on horseback. Shi Hu moved 30 million households in Xianbei in Duanbu to the four prefectures of Yong, Si, Yan and Henan in the interior, and sent Li Nong to supervise the military of Beiping in Liaoning and guard the northeast gateway of Qianzhao.

On the southern front, Shihu sent another founding general of Zhao Zhao, Kui An, to conquer the governor of the capital, and led 70,000 troops to attack the Jingyang region, the gateway of the Han people to the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Kui'an once captured the Eastern Jin Dynasty's Yicheng (now Huangzhou, Hubei), the Eastern Jin Dynasty general Huang Chong, Liyang Taishou Zheng Jin surrendered to Zhao, Kui'an plundered more than 70,000 households of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and returned. Population, that is, productivity, plundered the population, which is equivalent to robbing living machines, machines that screw the stability of the empire.

After the southern conquest and the northern war, Shi Hu's power continued to strengthen, and the territory of the Later Zhao State also expanded, and there was the "Land of Ten States" at its peak.

I was not interested in the expansion of the territory of a birdman like Shi Hu. The reason why I use a little pen and ink to describe it is mainly to draw out a person, a person whose history cannot be ignored but is somewhat overlooked.

In this battle against the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a Han boy general in the Shihu army, who was extremely brave and defeated the Jin army. This young general later profoundly influenced the history of northern China and wrote a strong stroke in the history of the Han nation.

Shi Min, Shi Hu's adopted grandson.

As mentioned above, in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Xiongnu and the Xiongnu rebelled, wantonly burned, killed and plundered, and the state was plagued by war and caused a great famine, and starvation was all over the land. In 306, Sima Teng, the assassin of Bingzhou, led a refugee group composed of more than 20,000 households, including officials, soldiers and peasants from the Western Jin Dynasty, to Jizhou (now the south of Shanxi, the southwest of Hebei, the northeast of Henan, and the west of Shandong) to seek food and make a living, and was called the "Begging Army".

The "beggar army", as the name suggests, is begging to survive in troubled times, and its tragic and tragic situation can be seen.

Most of the "beggar army" were Han Chinese peasants in exile, and some of them were officials, scholars, and officers and soldiers in the former Western Jin Dynasty and Prefecture. In troubled times, there was no special organization department to check their files and identify them, and when they joined the ranks of the exiles, they gradually became part of the exiled peasants.

In troubled times, outcasts come out, and homeless people disturb troubled times. More than half of China's dynasties were destroyed by exiles.

Qin annihilated the Six Kingdoms and laboriously completed the unification, and only the second remained, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang. Under the spark, the nobles of the six countries took the opportunity to restore the country, and the final fruits of victory were lucky to be won by Liu Bang, a social bastard.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "the sky is dead, and the yellow sky should stand", Zhang Jiao, Zhang Bao, and Zhang Liang brothers raised their arms, hundreds of thousands of displaced people swept the Central Plains, and the Han family declined.

"When autumn comes on September 8, I will kill a hundred flowers after the flowers bloom, and the incense array will penetrate Chang'an, and the city will be full of golden armor." At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao, a smuggler of salt in Shandong, led more than 100,000 displaced people to cross the border like locusts, sweeping the north and south of the river, gnawing away the foundation of the Tang Empire.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng, an unemployed staff member of a government guest house in the northwest region, led a group of hungry homeless people to wander around, and the government became stronger and stronger, snowballing to Beijing, forcing the inspirational Zhongxing Emperor Chongzhen to hang his crooked neck tree without being paid.

Those who have constant production have perseverance, but where there is a small broken house to shelter from the wind and rain, a stomach with porridge and hot soup, and a Chinese who loves the family, who wants to be a blind rogue not far from the hooligans? At present, a series of our policies, such as adhering to the red line of 1.8 billion mu of cultivated land to ensure that farmers have food, reforming the restrictions on homestead transactions to ensure that farmers have housing, and comprehensively all-round poverty alleviation and targeted poverty alleviation to ensure basic people's livelihood, are indeed high-level and far-sighted actions.

The problem of displaced people was also a prominent social problem in the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, and the central and local governments of the Western Jin Dynasty had a great headache for it and tried to solve it. There are two ways to do this: one is to move the displaced people back to where they came, where they came from; The second is the resettlement organized by the local government in the place to which the displaced people have migrated.

There is such a scene in the movie "1942" directed by Feng Xiaogang: during the Anti-Japanese War in 1942, a large number of refugees were hoarded in Henan, and the government coordinated a special train to divert the refugees to Shaanxi. As a result, he was driven back by the army sent by the Shaanxi local government before crossing Tongguan. In troubled times, the orders of the central government are still not easy to use. Because, the people of the place also have to eat and live.

During the war, there were not many displaced people, but a huge number, so how easy was it to repatriate? And the local resettlement is basically not feasible, wars and disputes, the influx of Wuhu, the local government of the Western Jin Dynasty itself can not protect itself, how can it take care of the resettlement of displaced people?

In this way, the group of displaced people continued to expand like a snowball, reaching an unprecedented level.

Under the war, resources were scarce, the landlords' families had no surplus food, and no local government welcomed the displaced people. Therefore, everywhere the beggar army went, there were constant conflicts.

The feudal officials of the Western Jin Dynasty, such as Sima Yue, Gou Xi, Wang Jun, etc., constantly sent troops to drive away the exile groups that had fled to their own territory. Later, it really didn't work, because there were more and more displaced people, like locusts crossing the border, how to drive them away? In some places, warlords have a little more sulcus in their brains, and they have an idea to think of a way to get the best of both worlds.

Since you can't drive them away, isn't it fragrant to give them weapons and help yourself fight?

As a result, the beggar army was again involved in the warlord melee.

After the invasion of Wuhu and the rise of ethnic contradictions into the main contradictions in society, the main activities of the beggar army also spontaneously changed to fight against the national enemies - the Xiongnu Liu clan and the Qianhu Shi clan.

In 311, after Luoyang was captured by the Xiongnu Liu clan, Guangzong (now east of Weixian County, Hebei) and Chenliu (east of present-day Kaifeng, Henan) north of the river were the two central areas where the beggar army mainly gathered.

The long-term struggle has enabled the begging army to sum up the three magic weapons of begging in troubled times: united front, armed struggle, and group building.

While engaged in agricultural production, the beggar army was also unified and formed an armed organization that was half army and half peasantry. With no property and no shelter, the pure proletariat, just to eat and survive, such a worry-free army is extremely fierce in the fight.

Before the start of the war, the beggar army did not think about waiting and seeing, protesting, regretting and issuing an ultimatum before fighting, but beat them up without saying a word. In the long-term and brutal struggle against the Hu people, he honed his strong combat effectiveness, and was known for his bravery, good fighting, strict organization, tenacity and strong endurance, and could be called the most ferocious and powerful special forces in ancient China.

There is a fierce man named Ran Liang in the begging army, the word Hongwu, a native of Neihuang (now northwest of Neihuang, Henan) in Huazhou, who has been dancing with guns and sticks since he was a child, and at the age of 11 he was able to lead the people to fight against the Hu people.

Ran Liang also has a national consciousness and patriotic plot, he once led his people from Wei (now Henan) to cross the river, defected to the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River, and asked the Jin family to send troops to the Northern Expedition together.

As a result, the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was partial to the south of the Yangtze River, didn't take a fancy to this group of ragged clothes and food. Ran Liang had no choice but to return north. However, this trip to the south was not without gains, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty court was grateful for Ran Liang's national integrity, gave him the corresponding political treatment, and named him the "General of Jianjie" in Jin.

Of course, this title is like Chairman Chiang's sealing of bandits, "lieutenant generals everywhere" and "two-star stinky streets", which is an empty letter of appointment and engages in verbal bribery.

In 310, Shile attacked Hanoi County, and when the two armies fought, Shile watched the battle in front of the battle. I saw a young general in the opponent's formation, brave and unbeatable, brave and fearless in the face of the siege army of the Xiongnu and Qianhu, shooting arrows and guns to kill many Hu soldiers.

Shi Le exclaimed: Fierce man (brave and commendable here).

This young warrior is Ran Liang.

Although Ran Liang was fierce, he was finally captured by Shi Le due to the disparity in strength. Shi Le cherished his talents, ordered Shi Hu to accept him as his adopted son, changed his name to Shi Zhan, and his Han beggar army was also surrendered by Shi Le, transferred to Shi Hu to control it, and stationed in Lanling County (near Yicheng District, Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province).

In 328, during the Great War between Former Zhao and Later Zhao, Ran Liang died in Xinjiang (southwestern Shanxi Province) in battle with Liu Yao's troops. After Ran Liang died, he left behind his young son Shi Min, who should be Shi Hu's adopted grandson according to his generation.

In addition to inheriting his father's bravery, Shi Min is also good at strategy. In 338 AD, Shi Min, who was only 16 years old, participated in the first battle of his military career, known as the Battle of Changli.

In this war, two talented young generals collided for the first time during the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms period. Of these two genius boys, one is naturally Shi Min, and the other is Murong Ke, who is known as the first general of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms.

As mentioned above, the Later Zhao ruled by Shi Hu and the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south were both partial to peace, and the frontier faced a huge military threat. The threat mainly comes from ethnic minorities in the north, such as Xianbei, Ding Ling, Wuhuan, Fuyu, etc.

Among them, there are three main branches of the Xianbei tribe: the Duan Division, the Murong Division, and the Yuwen Division. For Later Zhao, the greatest threat was the Former Yan Kingdom, founded in 337 by Murong Hao, the leader of the Murong tribe.

The Xianbei people, belonging to the northern Altaic language family, arose in the Daxing'an Mountains Mountains, and were a branch of the Donghu people in the Shang Dynasty, and moved south from the Daxing'an Mountains to the West Thorn Mulun River Basin during the Qin and Han dynasties. Xianbei was attached to the Eastern Han Empire, after the Xiongnu moved westward, the Xianbei people occupied the hometown of the Xiongnu, and more than 100,000 Xiongnu households left in Mobei were also incorporated into Xianbei, and their power gradually became stronger.

During the Wei and Jin dynasties, Murong Xianbei moved from western Liaoning to northeastern Liaoning, and in 294, Murong Xianbei, the leader of the Murong Xianbei tribe, led his troops to move to the Great Thorn City.

The Great Thorn City, located in the northwest of Yixian County, Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, and the east of Chaoyang City, was once the ruins of the ancient emperor.

In the Great Thorn City, Murong Diao reformed the Xianbei of the headquarters, taught the people to carry out agricultural production, and formulated a legal system to maintain the order of production and life (teaching agriculture and mulberry, the legal system is the same as that of Shangguo), and began the transformation from nomadic life to settled agricultural life.

After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, Murong Diao appointed Han scholars as strategists, with the Great Thorn City as the center of the Liaoshui Basin, to the Eastern Jin Dynasty as a vassal, by the Eastern Jin Dynasty officials.

In 337, Murong Hao, the son of Murong Diao, succeeded him, called the king of Yan in Dajiao City, built the Yan Kingdom, and was known as Qianyan in history. Murong Hao continued to respect the Eastern Jin Dynasty as orthodoxy and continued to expand his territory.

In 338 AD, Later Zhao Shihu and Murong Hao of the former Yan jointly attacked Duan Liao in Xianbei, and destroyed Duan Liao's Duchy of Liao.

After jointly destroying Duan Liao, Shi Hu began to attack Qianyan, a former ally.

In order to be famous as a teacher, Shi Hu found a reason: We agreed to attack Duan's Xianbei together, but in the end, you broke the contract and did it yourself without meeting with Hou Zhao. And that's not all, it's not interesting for you to come back after your victory.

Does the reason make sense? It doesn't matter anymore, a person like Shi Hu who lacks virtue in the five elements can still give you a reason before beating you, even if it is very face-saving.

Shi Hu occupied the Central Plains and was the largest force in North China, and the soldiers and civilians of Yan knew that Shi Hu was coming to attack, and they were very frightened. The 36 cities to which Qianyan belonged successively rebelled against Yan and surrendered to Zhao, and the Later Zhao army pointed directly at Thorn City.

Murong Hao was afraid of Shihu's army and wanted to flee, but was persuaded by his subordinates. Liu Pei, the general, led hundreds of death squad cavalry to attack the Zhao camp and won a small victory, which boosted the morale of the Yan army. Murong Hao stubbornly defended Thorn City and consumed the Zhao army.

The two armies held each other for more than ten days, and the Zhao army saw that it could not overcome Thorn City in the short term, so they retreated and prepared to plan for the long term. At this time, the first general in the history of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, the fourth son of Murong Hao, who was only 17 years old at the time, appeared.

Murong Ke, taking advantage of the retreat of the Zhao army, seized the favorable opportunity, and decisively led 2,000 light cavalry from the city in the early morning.

When you go to war, you are most afraid of being caught off guard. The Later Zhao army was organizing a retreat, and the baggage, horses, and personnel were noisy, and they were suddenly attacked by Murong Ke's light cavalry. Murong Ke pursued and slashed all the way, and actually won a great victory of more than 30,000 beheadings.

Because the Great Thorn City belongs to Changli County, the history of this war is called the Changli War.

The 17-year-old Murong Ke shocked the northern country because of the Changli War, and this battle also had a great impact on another genius boy.

In the Battle of Changli, the Later Zhao Zhu army was completely defeated, but only one army did not suffer much loss, which was the 3,000 Han army led by the guerrilla general Shi Min. In the face of the overall defeat, retreating in an orderly manner to preserve the troops is also a feat, which is no different from the performance of Zhao Zilong of Shu Han in the Battle of Xiegu. As a result, Shi Min was promoted by Shi Hu to the rank of general of Beizhonglang, participated in the defense of the northern border of Later Zhao, and made many miraculous achievements in the battle.

Let's talk about Murong Ke. Murong Ke, whose name is Xuangong, was born in Changli Thorn City, and Murong Hao is the fourth son.

When Murong Ke was a teenager, he showed maturity that was not commensurate with his age (young and cautious, Shen Shen was generous), but his father Murong Hao never paid much attention to Murong Ke. Cause? Men often love the house and Wu, and Murong Ke's mother, Gao, has never been Murong Hao's dish.

It wasn't until Murong Ke was 15 years old that Murong Hao gradually paid attention to this fourth child. What makes this virtuous character of a man change?

Because, Murong Ke is getting more and more handsome. In history, 15-year-old Murong Ke "is eight feet seven inches long, with a burly appearance and serious fortitude".

The ruler is a unit of measurement that exists in ancient and modern times, but the actual length is obviously different. To this day, rural men in the north still like to use their thumbs and middle fingers to spread out as a standard for measuring the length of objects in agricultural production. When I was a child, I often saw adults do this kind of measurement, and it is called "zha" and "yizha" in Shandong, which is the length of the thumb and middle finger of an adult man. In ancient times, the ruler originally referred to the distance between the extended thumb and middle finger of an adult man, which was about 20 centimeters.

With the development of human society, the fingers of adult men have also become longer, so one foot in the Zhou Dynasty was equivalent to 19.91 centimeters now, and in the Warring States period, one ruler was roughly equivalent to about 23 centimeters now. Of course, at that time, the countries were not completely consistent, such as the unearthed Warring States Chu ruler is 22.7 cm long.

By the time of the Western Jin Dynasty, one foot was about 24 centimeters today. According to this calculation, Murong Ke is nearly 2 meters tall, coupled with his manly spirit (his appearance is brilliant and his strength is serious), he is alive and well off the former Yan Optimus Prime.

What's even more commendable is that Murong Ke is still an intellectual (every time he talks about it, he is in the world). Murong Hao, only then did he feel that his fourth child might be a manufacturable material, and gradually delegated his authority to let him lead the troops.

In the Battle of Changli, Murong Ke won the first battle, and later he was out of control, and he showed amazing military talent when he was not as young as the weak crown. Specific achievements:

One. After the Sanzangkou was broken, Zhao.

In December 338, a few months after the Battle of Changli, Duan Liao, the Xianbei leader of the Duan clan who had been destroyed, sent an envoy to Zhao Shihu to ask for surrender.

As soon as he finished the table, Duan Liao regretted it. Shi Hu's temperament, he knows very well, what the consequences will be after surrendering, he dare not imagine.

After weighing it again, Duan Liao wanted to surrender Qianyan. Although Qianyan is the regime of the Murong Ministry, after all, everyone is a Xianbei person, with the same root and the same species.

Duan Liao secretly sent people to Murong Hao, and asked Qianyan to surrender, and conspired with Qianyan to set up an ambush, wanting to destroy the Zhao army that came to surrender.

At that time, Later Zhao Shihu had sent 30,000 troops led by Ma Qiu, Sima Yangyu and others to surrender Duan Liao, and Murong Ke led 7,000 elite cavalry to ambush in Miyun Mountain.

As soon as Ma Qiu and Sima Yangyu's Hou Zhao surrendered army, Murong Ke's ambush troops immediately attacked in all directions. Later, the Zhao army was caught off guard and was defeated at Sanzangkou (near Beigaositai, Chengde City, Hebei Province), Sima Yangyu was captured, and Ma Qiu escaped on foot.

Speaking of this Maqiu, everyone may be relatively unfamiliar. People born in the sixties and seventies must have an impression of a New Year's picture called "Magu Offering Birthday" that was posted at home during the New Year when they were young. This Magu is related to Maqiu, which will be described later.

Let's talk about Duan Liao. After Duan Liao took refuge in Qianyan, he was treated as a guest by Murong Hao. But how can it last long under the fence? In the following year, in 339, Duan Liao was beheaded, and the head was sent to Later Zhao Shihu.

The reason why Murong Hao killed Duan Liao is that Duan Liao intended to rebel. Whether it is a rebellion or not, in history, the lord of the country surrendered, and there were few good deaths, which is also the reason why Lu Su strongly persuaded Sun Quan not to surrender to Cao Cao before the Battle of Chibi: We can still be a petty official if we surrender (Xia Cao), boss, you surrender, you can only light the lamp in the thatched house - look for death ().

Two. Repeatedly broke Goguryeo.

Liaodong in Qianyan was a strategic location, and the biggest threat to Liaodong was Goguryeo. Qianyan successively served two Liaodong guard generals Murong Han and Murong Ren, one was beaten away by Goguryeo and the other was killed, and later, no one dared to defend Liaodong.

Hard bones, I'll gnaw on them. In October 341, at the age of 20, Murong Ke was appointed by Murong Hao as the general of Duliao to guard Pingguo. After reaching Pingguo, Murong Ke, who was strong-blooded, led the army to take the initiative to attack, repeatedly breaking Goguryeo, until Goguryeo was afraid and did not dare to enter the Qianyan realm again.

In October 345, the 24-year-old Murong Ke was ordered to attack Goguryeo and easily take Goguryeo's Nansu, roughly located at the confluence of the Dongsuzi River and the Hunhe River in present-day Fushun City, Liaoning Province.

Three. Defeated Xianbei Yuwen clan.

In 342, Qianyan moved its capital to Longcheng, which is now Chaoyang, Liaoning. At that time, the northwest of Longcheng was Zimengchuan, the capital of Yuwen Xianbei, and the former Yan moved the capital here, and the rush between Murong and Yuwen Xianbei was inevitable.

In February 344, Murong Hao personally led his troops to attack Yuwen Yidougui of the Xianbei Yuwen Department. He took Murong Han as the vanguard, and the fierce general Liu Pei as the deputy general, and ordered the 23-year-old Murong Ke, Murong Jun, Murong Ba (Xiaoxiong, later Xu) and the Zhichong general Mu Yugen to lead the army to advance in three ways.

The Qianyan Third Route Army was unstoppable, broke the Yuwen Department, and conquered Zimengchuan, the capital of the Yuwen clan. Yuwen Yidou was defeated and fled and died in Mobei. The Xianbei Yuwen clan has since dispersed.

Four. Conquer Buyeo country

In the first month of 346, Murong Ke and Murong Jun, the son of Murong Hao, together with Murong Jun and Mu Yugen, led 17,000 cavalry to attack the Buyeo Kingdom (the king's residence was roughly in present-day Changtu County, Tieling, Liaoning). Murong Jun sat in the command of the Chinese army, and Murong Ke was the vanguard, commanding the armies to attack, conquering Buyeo, capturing the king of Buyeo Xuan, and more than 50,000 tribes to return to Longcheng.

Murong Hao did not embarrass the captured Fuyu Xuan, named him the general of the town army, and married his daughter to him as his wife. Since then, the members of the Buyeo family have been full of the former Yan and Hou Yan courts.

However, in 370, when the Former Qin established by the Di people destroyed the Qianyan, it was Fuyu Wei, the son of Fuyu Xuan, who led more than 500 people to open the gate of Yecheng and helped the Former Qin destroy the Qianyan. That's an afterword.

After the former Yan destroyed the Duan Xianbei and Yuwen Xianbei, and defeated Goguryeo and Buyeo, it had become the most powerful regime in the northeast.

The area under the jurisdiction of Qianyan at that time roughly included part of today's Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Liaoning, and became the two major overlords of the north along with Later Zhao Shihu.

In contrast, the Shihu forces, which occupied the Central Plains, had a slight advantage.