Agitated for 400 years: Murong Shengtuo successively became emperor, and Northern Wei Taoguang secretly stored forces

This article is the 227th in a long series of articles, "Four Hundred Years of Turmoil"

On June 16 of the second year of Long'an (398 AD), Tuoba Jue assembled a group of courtiers to discuss what name to adopt.

"Before the Zhou Dynasty and the Qin Dynasty, the Son of Heaven was promoted by the princes and used the original princely state name as the name of the world. After the Han Dynasty, no one who seized the world had a foot of land as capital and reliance. For hundreds of generations in our country, our descendants have inherited each other and created a foundation in the place north of Dai County, and we should use Dai as the name of the country. ”

Cui Hong, a waiter at the Yellow Gate, objected: "In the past, the Shang Dynasty did not stay in the same place for a long time, so there were two titles: Yin and Shang. Although the Dai County area is an ancient country, it is a recent occurrence for us to receive the grace of heaven and accept the mission of governing the world, and the name of the country has been changed to Wei a few years ago. Wei, a name that contains the meaning of beauty and greatness, was once a powerful country in this land. Therefore, it should be called Wei as in the past. ”

In the end, Tuoba Jue listened to Cui Hong's advice and set the name of the country as Wei.

In July, Tuoba Jue moved the capital from Shengle to Pingcheng, and began to build palaces, set up Jongmyo temples, and altars for earth gods and ceres gods, just like the system of the Han Dynasty.

In August, Tuoba Jue ordered the relevant departments to determine the division of the Beijing Division, indicate the name and mileage of the road, unify weights and measures, send special envoys to various counties to inspect and supervise, and report the impeachment of local officials who violated the law and discipline, so that Tuoba Jue could personally investigate and convict.

On November 23, Tuoba Jue ordered Shangshu Shangshu (Deng Qiang's grandson) to formulate an official system to coordinate the music of the imperial family; Cao Lang Dong Mian formulated a ceremonial system; Ordered The Third Gonglang Wang De to formulate laws and regulations; ordered Taishi Ling Chao Chong to investigate the celestial signs; and sent the official Shangshu Cui Hong to oversee the ruling as a permanent system for the country.

After half a year of preparation, the official debut of the Northern Wei Empire came to fruition.

On the second day of the first month of December, Tuoba Jue officially took the throne as emperor, pardoned the world, and changed the yuan tianxing. After becoming emperor, Tuoba Jue established a series of rules and regulations:

1. Order all officials and people inside and outside the imperial court to tie their hair together, wear hats, and align themselves with the Han people in their clothing;

2. Posthumously honor the twenty-seven people below the distant ancestor Tuoba Mao as emperor, honor the sixth ancestor Tuoba Liwei as the Shenyuan Emperor, the temple number ancestor, the grandfather Tuoba Shiyi qian as the Zhaocheng Emperor, the temple number Gaozu, and the father Tuoba Yu as the Emperor Xianming;

(3) From this year onwards, abandon the old traditions of Xianbei and formulate ceremonial music for temples and pilgrimages in accordance with the Han traditions;

4. Adopt Cui Hong's suggestion and claim to be a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, Shang Tude;

5. The officials of the twenty-two counties of the six prefectures and more than 2,000 large families of the Hao clan were moved to live in Daidu; the areas from Dai County in the east, to Shanwu in the west, to Yinguan in the south, and to Sanhepi in the north were all assigned to Gyeonggi; and the four sides and four dimensions outside the Beijing Division were set up to supervise and administer them respectively.

These measures, both in form and in content, were closer to the Han dynasty in order to increase their legitimacy and appeal to the people.

Two months before Tuoba Jue became emperor, Murong Sheng also declared himself emperor in Longcheng.

On October 14, the Later Yan chancellor again requested Murong Sheng to be proclaimed emperor. This time, he did not resign.

On October 17, Murong Sheng ascended the throne, with Empress Dowager Duan as Empress Dowager and Empress Dowager Ding as Empress Dowager Xianzhuang. Concubine Lan, who had saved his life, did not become empress after all.

On the thirteenth day of the first month of the third year of Long'an (399 AD), Tuoba Jue toured the north and ordered the great general Tuoba Zun and three other armies to march from the east road to Changchuan, and the zhenbei general Gaoliang Wang Tuoba Lezhen and seven other armies marched from the west road to Niuchuan, and he himself led a large army from the middle road at The Qishui River to prepare to attack the Gaoche tribe.

On the first day of February, the Northern Wei army defeated more than 30 tribes of Gaoche, capturing more than 70,000 people, capturing more than 300,000 horses, and more than 1.4 million cattle and sheep.

Tuoba Yi, the King of Wei, led another 30,000 cavalry into the desert for more than a thousand miles, attacked the seven remnants of gaoche, captured more than 20,000 people, captured more than 50,000 horses, and more than 20,000 cattle and sheep.

As long as the Tuoba clan rises, it must conquer Gaoche, capture their population, rob their cattle and horses, and regard it as a cash machine.

Lifestyle determines the way of survival, and nomads are accustomed to the weak and the strong, and of course, the fighting peoples.

In February, Tuoba Jue held a large-scale hunting activity south of the Niuchuan River, let the Gaoche people as a fence, surrounded by more than 700 miles, drove the beasts to Pingcheng, and then let the Gaoche people build a deer park, which was tens of miles in circumference, and did its best to show off its might.

On the eighth day of March, Tuoba Jue continued to carry out institutional reforms, dividing the original Shangshu Thirty-six Cao and some Beijing foreign official offices into three hundred and sixty Cao, and assigning eight doctors in charge.

The official Shangshu Cui Hong was in charge of the original Thirty-Six Caos, and was in charge of affairs like Ling and Shu. Doctors of the Five Classics were also set up, and the number of students in Guozitai was increased, reaching a total of 3,000.

On this day, Tuoba Jue asked Dr. Li Xian: "What is the best thing in the world?" Can it be used to replenish one's wisdom and spirit? Li Xian replied, "There is nothing compared to books." ”

Tuoba Jue asked, "How many books are there?" How can we put them together? Li Xian replied: "From the generation of writing to the present, the number of books has increased with each generation, and it is impossible to accurately count." If His Majesty really likes it, there is no need to worry about not being able to collect it. ”

At Li Xian's suggestion, Tuoba Jue ordered the counties to request and collect books on a large scale, and all of them were sent to Pingcheng. This was another great act of kindness and also promoted the spread of Han culture in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

At the same time as the internal revival of culture and education, Tuoba Jue did not give up external expansion.

On March 20, Tuoba Jue sent the Jianyi general Yu Zhen (庾真) and the Yue cavalry lieutenant Xi Jin (奚瑾) to lead troops to attack the three tribes of Kudi, Yu lian, and Hou Mochen, breaking them all and pursuing them all the way to The Valley of Dae, where they then set up guard troops before returning.

However, Tuoba Jue's external expansion was aimed at relatively small or backward tribes, and did not target relatively powerful forces such as Murong Sheng or Murong De, as well as Later Qin.

It can be seen from this that after the arduous experience of attacking Zhongshan, Tuoba Jue became more pragmatic and focused on strengthening his strength, that is, enhancing his internal strength.

Tuoba Jue's Taoguang cultivation was obscure, and he couldn't help but make Murong Sheng and Murong De have the illusion, couldn't Northern Wei do it? Under such psychological hints, they began to make small moves continuously, once again trying to restore Dayan.

Life went on and on, and Murong Clan was working hard for the restoration of the country for generations.