After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty surrendered to the Southern Xiongnu, a large part of the Xiongnu gradually sinicized and entered the Central Plains to survive. After Sima Yi slaughtered Gongsun Yuan of Liaodong Province, various branches of the Xianbei clan, such as murong clan, Duan clan, Tuoba clan, and Yuwen clan, also gradually entered the Central Plains to survive.
In this way, during the Western Jin Dynasty, it was not unusual for Hu people to live in the Central Plains. However, in terms of status, the Hu people are the horses of the Han people in the Central Plains, and they are basically the lives of dry laborers.
Any nation will have heroes, and at this time, someone will definitely shout: The prince will have a kind of Xiangning?
Or a sentence burst out from the heart: My fate is up to me!
Indeed, the Western Jin Dynasty lasted for 52 years, most of which was spent infighting among the various princes of the Sima family. Therefore, the Hu people saw the opportunity and finally found a good opportunity to change their lives against the sky.
First, the rise of Liu Yuan is by no means accidental.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Control of the Hetao Region by the Han Dynasty was actually quite weak. When Cao Cao came to power, in order to prevent the Hu population from bursting into chaos in the south, the Southern Xiongnu were divided into five, and each one was selected by a Han to supervise.
However, along with the internal strife of the Cao Wei regime, the Hu people also began to stir up trouble. Although the Western Jin Dynasty replaced Cao Wei's dominance, the supervision of the Hu people was far less than that of Cao Wei.
Especially during Sima Yan's reign, Hu leaders such as Liu Bao and Liu Yuan gradually reunited the five Southern Xiongnu divided in Hezhou. At this point, the people of insight in the Western Jin Dynasty were naturally worried, but Sima Yan smiled: What big waves can my family's slaves afford?
Unfortunately, what Sima Yan could not see was that in addition to the Southern Xiongnu, the population of the Huns and Qiang tribes in the Guanlong region, and even the Xianbei tribes in the northeast region, were increasing sharply and gradually losing control. After these Hu people lived together for a while, they actually derived a new Hu tribe: the Qi people.
A simple set of data can see the troubles faced by the Western Jin Dynasty at that time:
In the late Western Han Dynasty, the northern Hanhu population ratio was 33 to 1.
In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the northern Hanhu population ratio was 18 to 1.
But in the Western Jin Dynasty, the northern Hanhu population ratio was: 3.4 to 1.
This is good, the proportion of Hanhu population is getting smaller and smaller, and the advantages of Han people are gradually weakening. And the five hu all gathered together, just waiting to summon the divine dragon. Who was the first dragon? Naturally, it was Liu Yuan, the founder of the Han Zhao regime.
Liu Yuan was a hostage in Cao Wei since he was a child, so he was very familiar with the customs and political style of the Han people, and naturally he spied the shortcomings and contradictions within the Han regime.
So the question is, Liu Yuan is a Xiongnu, why is his surname Liu? Mainly because Liu Yuan claimed to be a descendant of the Xiongnu Mao Dun Shan Yu. Mo Dunshan surrounded Liu Bang on Mount Baishan that year and almost slaughtered the old ancestor of the Han Dynasty. After that, Liu Bang chose to marry the princess to Mo Dun Shan Yu in order to calm the people, and the history of the Han Dynasty began.
The exchange of a woman for peace between the two countries is very humiliating, but the effect seems to be OK. Therefore, later kings followed suit. Over time, the relationship between Han and Hungary became more intimate. Liu Bang and Mao Dun Shan Yu were even brothers, and the descendants of Mo Dun Shan Yu claimed to be surnamed Liu, and there was nothing wrong with them.
Liu Yuan not only integrated into the Han chinese community from the perspective of his ancestors, but also attached great importance to culture. He was very good at learning when he was young, and successively studied the "Spring and Autumn Zuo Clan Biography", "Sun Wu's Art of War", "History", "Book of Han" and so on, all of which are as many as the family treasures.
Handsome and very talented, such a Liu Yuan, in fact, whoever looks at it likes it. Therefore, Sima Yan, the Emperor of Jinwu, after seeing Liu Yuan for the first time, loved him so much that he could not extricate himself. Looking at Sima Yan's urine nature, if Liu Yuan was not from a Hu origin, he would have been out of the picture a long time ago.
Second, Liu Yuan's career is not as easy as imagined.
Just because Sima Yan liked him, it was useless. Because many people were not happy with him, especially the Sima family's clan, they felt that a Hu person who had been a slave to himself was reused.
However, the ministers who worked in the non-clan office did not look too big to see the hilarity, but they liked Liu Yuan very much, and often said good things about Liu Yuan in front of Sima Yan.
In this way, Sima Yan was very embarrassed, should he reuse Liu Yuan? This has become a big problem. At this time, the bald tree function of the Xianbei tribe rebelled and captured Qinzhou and Liangzhou.
This incident touched Sima Yan greatly, and he had planned to appoint Liu Yuan to suppress the rebellion, but he also thought that the northwest region was the old lair of the five Southern Xiongnu, and it was not a dragon that let Liu Yuan go into the sea? Therefore, Sima Yan abandoned this plan.
The Sima family's clan felt that this was not enough, and they should kill Liu Yuan quickly to avoid the trouble, for the simple reason that Liu Yuan could not be under the Western Han Xiongnu Jin Riju, and would definitely become a disaster in the future!
The reason was very good, and Sima Yan could not refuse. For the sake of the ancestral inheritance, Sima Yan's big knife had already been lifted. However, at this time, Wang Hun, a migrant worker, did not know what medicine he had taken, so he had to run out and use the lives of his whole family to vouch for Liu Yuan, which saved Liu Yuan's life.
Liu Yuan, who had escaped a disaster, understood that if he continued to mix like this, sooner or later his own life would be killed by these clans. So he was actively seeking a way out. It just so happened that Liu Yuan's father, Liu Bao, the left marshal, died, which gave Liu Yuan a wonderful chance to escape.
Under Liu Yuan's advice, the ministers of the Western Jin Dynasty suggested that Sima Yan should be made the left marshal. Sima Yan finally let go, and Liu Yuan entered the sea from then on.
Will leopard pawn, with Yuan Haidai as the left marshal. Tai Kang Mo, Bai Northern Governor. Ming criminal law, prohibition of adultery and evil, light wealth and good charity, pushing sincerity to receive things, the five junjie are all there. The famous Confucians of the Shadows, the back door Xiushi, not far away, are also traveling. --- Book of Jin
Because Liu Yuan's ability was relatively strong and he liked to make friends very much, all the haojie of the five Southern Xiongnu came to Liu Yuan and were willing to work for him.
Third, Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu, became an important promoter of Liu Yuan's family.
The tree is a big trick, isn't this another trouble! Because Liu Yuan's fame was too great, the imperial court casually found an excuse and laid him off. Fortunately, he was more familiar with people's feelings and sophisticated, and ran to bribe Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu, and Liu Yuan instantly changed from unemployed at home to the general Ning Shuo, holding the military power of the five Southern Xiongnu.
When the Rebellion of the Eight Kings came, the leaders of the five Southern Xiongnu also gathered together to hold a conference, the main purpose of which was to restore the grand cause of the Xiongnu and no longer continue to mix with the Western Jin Dynasty. And this leader is Liu Yuan.
Because Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu, was in the limelight, Liu Yuan still chose to follow Sima Ying, and behind his back, he began to plot his own rebellion plan.
After Sima Ying became the emperor's brother-in-law, he also dreamed that Liu Yuan could become his confidant, so he successively appointed Liu Yuan as a lieutenant of the Tun Riding School, an acting auxiliary general, and a champion general.
Yang Jun assisted the government, with YuanHai as the general of Jianwei and the governor of wubu, and the marquis of Hanguang Township. At the end of Yuan Kang, the Zabu people defected and dismissed the officials. Wang Yingzhen of Chengdu, General Ning Shuo of The Yuan Dynasty, Supervisor of the Five Military Departments. --- Book of Jin
However, the rise of Sima Ying caused strong dissatisfaction from other clans, and various princes and kings came to challenge them, causing Sima Ying's brain to hurt. Liu Yuan's status was already very high at this time, and after accumulating enough capital, he planned to return to his clan, and when the time came, he would raise his arms and exhale, not just a hundred responses!
To this end, Liu Yuan took the initiative to make a suggestion to Sima Ying: Boss, I will go to the Five Southern Xiongnu to call people, and you are waiting for me here!
Sima Ying couldn't help but worry: "Or should I go with you?"
Liu Yuan shook his head continuously: "Boss, you are a heavenly nobleman, how can you easily move the nest?" This will affect morale!
In this way, Liu Yuan left Sima Ying and returned to the Wubu Southern Xiongnu. After Liu Yuan returned, he immediately put up a large banner and gathered 50,000 people, calling himself Da Dan Yu. Sima Ying, on the other hand, was gradually defeated and eventually perished.
4. Establish the Han and Zhao regimes and become the head of the Sixteen Kingdoms.
In the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, which was the first to stir up trouble in the north? Naturally, it was Liu Yuan's Han Zhao regime. In fact, the state established by Liu Yuan was the Han regime, known in history as Liu Han. Later, after his adopted son Liu Yao succeeded to the throne, he changed the name of the country to Zhao, so he was collectively known as Han Zhao.
Later, Shi Le also established the state of Zhao, and in order to facilitate the distinction, the regime established by Liu Yuan was used as Former Zhao, and the regime established by Shi Le was Later Zhao.
After Liu Yuan's rise, Sima Teng, Sima Yu, and other Western Jin clans were naturally unconvinced, and they sent people to challenge them many times, and as a result, they were all beaten by Liu Yuan on the ground.
After that, Liu Yuan took the initiative to march into Shanxi in order to facilitate the control of the Central Plains. This is exciting news, and the Hu people finally have a feeling of turning over and being the master.
The Hu tribes of the Xianbei and Xianbei tribes, including the Hu clan such as the Xian, all defected to Liu Yuan. Although Liu Yuan's territory was not large enough at that time, he united all the Hu tribes, and the influence of this matter was really too great.
He gave the Hu people hope that in addition to the Han people, the Hu people could also establish their own political power, and their strength could be so strong.
Summary: Subverting the Hu-Han relationship is Liu Yuan's ultimate goal.
In the past, the Hu people could generally only make slaves to the Han nobles of the Western Jin Dynasty, which is why the Western Jin clans opposed Sima Yan's reuse of Liu Yuan.
Although Liu Yuan has long been educated in Han culture, after all, he is from the Xiongnu, and the Western Jin dynasty clans are more responsive in their hearts. After all, most of the grooms and caravans in the family are Hu people, so why can this Hu person be a feudal official?
This is the typical mind of not being angry and not allowing others to be motivated. One by one, the Western Jin Dynasty clan members were drunk and dreaming of death, not thinking of making progress, but they were worried that the house slaves would turn over and become masters.
It is from this perspective that Liu Yuan sees the problem. It is true that he is a Xiongnu, but all he has learned in his life is Han culture, so he is a comprehensive talent.
In the face of the great national righteousness, Liu Yuan resolutely favored his own nation. It was understandable that all he needed was equality. Since the Western Jin Dynasty could not give them this kind of equality, they could only create it with their own hands.
Liu Yuan was only an example, and with Liu Yuan as such an example, Shi Le of the Xianbei clan, Murong Hao of the Xianbei clan, Yao Cang of the Qiang clan, Jian Jian of the Xianbei clan, Tuoba Jue of the Xianbei clan, and so on, all successively established dynasties belonging to their own nationalities. That's the power of example.
Reference: Book of Jin