In 523 (the fourth year of northern Wei Zhengguang), the civilians of the Northern Wei military town of Woye gathered to rebel, and the Han and Hu people in various towns responded.
The cause of the incident was as follows: Rouran Khan took advantage of the lack of air defense on the border of the six towns to raise troops to invade and plunder the south, and the six towns area suffered heavy losses and starved people everywhere. The town of General Jing, who had been deposed by the imperial court to Huaihuang Town, organized military and civilian resistance, but the common people demanded that the granary be opened first to solve the problem of hunger and clothing, which Was refused by Yu Jing. The angry starving people could not bear it, killed Yu Jing, opened the granary, and rebelled against the Northern Wei regime.
The revolt of the soldiers and civilians in Huaihuang Town triggered the echo of other military towns, and the border people of Woye Town, led by the Xiongnu to break the Six Han Tombs, killed the general of Woye Town, rebelled, and the rebellion spread everywhere, and the Liuzhen area was completely out of control.
After the news of the rebellion led by the Breaking of the Six Han Dynasties spread, Helian En and Hu Chen raised troops in Gaoping Town; Mo Zhida raised troops in Qin Prefecture, and Yu Zhuti and Hu Yanxiong raised troops in Liangzhou; until the larger Ge Rong Rebellion broke out in 528 AD, and the foundation of Northern Wei's rule began to be seriously shaken.
The spark of the stars formed a trend of burning the plains, which showed that the resentment of the townspeople of the six towns was not a matter of one day or two days.
As the core of the military strength of the northern Wei Dynasty, the six northern towns had a high military and civilian status, so why did they rebel?
Brief description of the six northern towns
In the process of unifying the north, in order to strengthen the defense of The Northern Wei Dynasty, in order to strengthen the defense of the northern Rouran, the Taiwu Emperor Tuoba Tao Zhengfa Division, You, Ding, and Ji Prefecture 100,000 people built fortifications, from the upper valley in the east to the Yellow River in the west, more than a thousand miles long, and built a wall to defend Pingcheng. Later, towns were set up in this area for defense, and six towns were successively set up in Woye, Huaishuo, Fumian, Wuchuan, Rouxuan, and Huaihuang.
Later, the Northern Wei successively built the Great Wall of the North and cooperated with the six towns to defend, so that the army guarding the border defense of the northern town could attack and retreat, and the threat of nomadic forces such as Rouran to the capital of the Northern Wei state of Pingcheng was greatly reduced. After the Northern Wei unified the north, Rouran rarely plundered from the south and turned to the western region and other places, indicating that this defensive strategy was quite successful.
Of course, the generals and soldiers of such an important six towns must also be loyal and excellent. The townsmen of the six towns were all from the Tuoba nobles or the loyal and warlike clans in the interior, and most of the soldiers were selected from the high-ranking disciples of the Xianbei Tuoba clan to serve as outstanding warriors. The political status of the soldiers of the six towns was also much higher than that of the soldiers in other places, and the military generals at that time were mostly proud to be able to go to the border of the six towns.
However, the military town system also has its dual nature.
If the imperial court can control the military town, the military town is a strong government army. If the central government cannot effectively control the commanders of the military towns, the military towns will become a force of separatism and division. In this case, the soldier became the private subordinate of the official and was enslaved by the official at will. This will inevitably greatly reduce the social status and combat effectiveness of military personnel.
Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital and the Mendi system, so that the soldiers of the six towns lost their future
Within these military towns, the soldiers still lived a semi-nomadic, semi-agricultural lifestyle. When Emperor Xiaowen carried out Sinicization reforms in China, although no major adjustments were made to the military town system, with the implementation of the capital relocation and the door valve system, the military and civilians of the six northern towns gradually felt lost or even desperate.
First of all, the Northern Wei Dynasty moved its capital to Luoyang, and the strategic importance of the six towns arching the old capital Pingcheng dropped sharply, and the status of the Shubian generals also plummeted.
Although the town general Zhenjun was still a humble nobleman, compared with the nobles of Luoyang, both in terms of status and wealth, they lost their future; the military and civilians of the six towns were reduced from a model of high status and good treatment to a place with low status and poor treatment, and no one wanted to go.
Secondly, Emperor Xiaowen presided over the demarcation of the aristocratic door, and only those who came from high gates had a future, so the psychological gap of the town army increased.
Emperor Xiaowen once rated the Xianbei clans of Mu, Lu, He, Liu, Ji, Yu, Lou, Wei, and the Han surnames Cui, Lu, Li, Zheng, and Wang as first-class warriors, as well as other subordinate clans. Only those who came from these aristocratic families could mix in the official arena and obtain high-ranking officials. And the townspeople have become despised rough people, and there is basically no possibility of promotion in the future.
Third, the main enemy of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Rouran, declined and split into two parts, one surrendering to the Northern Wei and the other paying tribute to the Northern Wei. As a result, the six northern towns had nothing to do militarily and politically.
The main function of the army is to fight for the country, and the honor and interests of soldiers also come from war.
When the town had nothing to do and its status declined, it became increasingly dissatisfied with the imperial court, so it occupied the fertile land in Daibei Guangdong, drove the soldiers to cultivate, and withheld military salaries; at the same time exploited the townspeople. As a result, the contradiction between the town and the town soldiers and townspeople intensified. The towns will go their separate ways, amassing money, and the strong soldiers will plunder everywhere, and the old, weak, sick and disabled will be reduced to almost slaves. The contradiction between the town general and the town soldiers, and between the town soldiers and the townspeople, has gradually deepened.
The contradiction finally broke out after the arrival of The Town of Huaihuang after the arrival of Jing, and the Rebellion of the Six Han Dynasties was launched. Since then, the Northern Wei regime has entered the countdown stage.
Luoyang Longmen Grottoes
epilogue
Looking at the large-scale timeline, the great event of Emperor Xiaowen's sinicization and relocation of the capital is absolutely beneficial to the Chinese nation, which deepens and accelerates the integration of Hu and Han and forms a lot of institutional innovation. However, for the military and civilians in the Liuzhen area at that time, the relocation of the capital to Sinicization brought disaster. Emperor Xiaowen failed to resolve the conflict of interests between the people who moved to Luo and those who remained in Daibei, resulting in the long-term neglect of the interests of the military and civilians in the six towns that were important for the northern reform. The contradiction accumulated over time, and finally broke out when the town was not properly handled by the crisis.
From 493 AD, when Emperor Xiaowen planned to move the capital, to 523, when the Six Towns Rebellion broke out, it was exactly thirty years. Emperor Xuanwu and Emperor Xiaoming, who followed Emperor Xiaowen, wasted too much time to remedy Emperor Xiaowen's loopholes, and finally changed from thirty years of Hedong to thirty years of Hexi; in another thirty years or so, Eastern Wei and Western Wei gradually perished, and Tuoba Xianbei's career ended.