In 526 AD, the northern border town of the powerful Northern Wei Dynasty, Huaihuang Town, had a small refugee petition incident.
According to the American meteorologist Edward Lorentz's description of the butterfly effect: a butterfly in the Amazon rainforest of South America, occasionally flapping its wings a few times, can cause a tornado in Texas two weeks later.
Similarly, the refugee petition incident in Huaihuang Town, which did not seem too difficult to deal with, was like the butterfly that caused the incident, which set off a monstrous wave in Northern China, and eventually swept the Beast of Northern Wei into the abyss of death.
Schematic map of the six towns of the Northern Wei Dynasty
Huaihuang Town belonged to one of the six towns of Northern Wei, shouldering the heavy responsibility of fighting against Rouran and Gongwei Jingshi. Rouran in the north is a terrible thing, it is like the Xiongnu before and the Turks after it is a powerful nomadic people, although it is called Rouran, it is not soft at all, fast horse machete, coming and going like electricity, haunting impermanence, Jinge iron horse, so that the Central Plains regime hurt the brain. Mulan, the hero of the Southern and Northern Dynasties folk song "Mulan Ci", is a benchmark figure in the fight against Rouran and the defense of his hometown. In the face of Rouran's strength, in desperation, the Northern Wei regime adopted a strategy of attacking with one hand and defending with the other, while strengthening the military strike on Rouran, it also vigorously built fortifications, and the six towns of Northern Wei were the six major war zones for defending Rouran.
This time, Rouran once again marched south, plundering the area around Huaihuang Town. The townspeople, who had lost their food and means of labor, could not survive and rushed to Yu Jing, commander of the Huaihuang Town Theater, to ask for relief, but this reasonable request was rejected by Yu Jing. His refusal was also justified: You can't live, what's the matter with me?
Six towns rioted
The townspeople listened to Yu Jing's words, became angry, and decided to rebel: You don't let us townspeople live, and we won't let you live in this town! The townspeople did what they said, and they launched a riot, rushed up, and beat Yu Jing and his wife, who were usually powerful, to death in public and occupied the town of Huaihuang.
The good news of Huaihuang Town's successful seizure of power grew like wings, and suddenly spread throughout northern China, and the other five towns in the six towns also learned from it, and the Huaihuang Town riots evolved into six towns riots, and the Northern Wei Empire, which was strong in the outside world, was hollowed out by the suppression of the six towns riots almost instantaneously, and the great chaos in Northern China, the six towns riots were like a whistle-ringing fuse, igniting the giant powder keg of the northern Wei dynasty: after the loud noise, a mess, chicken feathers everywhere, the six town riots have not been suppressed, and riots across the country have followed, and in the chaotic world, Erzhu Rong, Yuwen Tai, Gao Huan, and other tyrants rose up together, and soon, northern Wei was split into Eastern Wei and Western Wei, and then quickly replaced by Northern Qi and Northern Zhou, and the once invincible Northern Wei Dynasty finally entered the grave that history had dug for it.
Statue of Emperor Xiaowen of Wei Tuoba Hong (元宏) – Datong, Shanxi (Pingcheng)
Rather than saying that the gravediggers of the Northern Wei Dynasty are history, it is better to say that the Xiaowen Emperor Tuoba Hong is more specific.
The above view may be disagreed by most people, Emperor Xiaowen of Wei has already made a conclusive conclusion, and historians have very consistent in their evaluation of him: the outstanding ethnic minority politicians and reformers in Chinese history, the Northern Wei ShiWenzhi martial arts are the first, surpassing the great Wei Taiwu Emperor Tuoba Tao, and is the well-deserved first male lord of the Northern Wei Dynasty. In his 28 years in power, in addition to reducing the burden on the people, resting with the people, lightly dispensing taxes, and promoting the equalization of the field system, the most well-known thing is probably the two things that moved the capital to Luoyang and the Reform of Sinicization, which are actually one thing.
Emperor Xiaowen of Wei finally moved the capital from Pingcheng (Datong, Shanxi) to Luoyang, the core area of the Han nationality, and vigorously developing The Han culture also enabled the Xianbei people to step from the end of the primitive society to a mature feudal society, and achieved unprecedented ethnic integration in peacetime.
Emperor Xiaowen of Wei moved south
However, everything has two sides, Sinicization greatly improved the level of civilization of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but at the same time greatly reduced the national martial spirit, and more importantly, the soldiers of the six towns who were originally regarded as national heroes and applauded everywhere found that they were no longer treated since when.
The former six towns were the first line of resistance against Rouran, because the capital Pingcheng was behind it, and all policies were tilted towards the six towns. For the enthusiastic young people of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the six towns were the ideal place for them to serve the country and die on the battlefield, because it was the place where the motherland needed it most; for the military aristocrats of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the six towns were the best choice for them to make meritorious achievements, because the emperor was watching there, and whoever could establish military merit in the six towns could realize the dream of entering the government and ascending to the heavens one step at a time.
Once the six towns, the treatment is the best, the future is the brightest, the spotlight is the brightest... All the young people of the Northern Wei Dynasty who had the ambition and fighting spirit went north one after another, and enlisted in the army with the ideal of establishing military merit and serving the motherland, of course, it depends on who you are, and not everyone can enjoy this glory:
If you are a humble nobleman and his descendants, then warmly welcome; if you are a peasant of other ethnic minorities, please make up your mind, turn backwards, what should you do; if you are Han, sorry, please go home and continue your serfdom career...
Humble aristocrats
At that time, six towns were synonymous with hot, as long as you and the six towns touched the edge, others immediately looked up to you, the townsmen of the six towns and the townspeople, often on the headlines of various front pages, even the emperor had to pay tribute to three points when he saw it.
But this kind of good day, after Emperor Xiaowen moved south, slowly disappeared.
A humble man dressed in two colors, Hu and Han
Luoyang is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, far away from the frontier, and there is no longer any need for the soldiers of the six towns to defend as if they were defending Pingcheng; His Majesty the Emperor is good at sinology, and he has given his own Han name (Yuanhong) not to mention, but also wants all the humble nobles to change their Han surnames, and we barbaric Qiu Ba, who can only fight wars, cannot recognize a Single Chinese character, and has not been valued by the Emperor. In short, the Northern Wei Dynasty had lost the bloodiness of a nomadic people and had become a highly educated, hierarchical, and weak-armed people like the traditional rulers of the Central Plains.
As a result, the political and economic status of the soldiers of the six towns plummeted, and everyone had to sharpen their heads to come to the six towns, but now no one was invited to come. The six towns, once hunted by the red flag and full of vitality, have become a paradise for second-rate children, rogue proletarians, homeless people and blind streams.
The long-term depression is suppressed by the townspeople of Six Towns, which are like an abandoned metropolis, and now they can only stumble upon her former glory and splendor in the ruins. Today's six towns have become a powder keg, only for someone to draw the match that determines the fate of Northern China.
And the person who drew the match was exactly the Yu Jing mentioned above, which I don't know whether it should be regarded as his luck or his misfortune! And what about Tuoba Hong, the Xiaowen Emperor who was buried underground and had already been called "Wen"? In the Fa Li, through the heavens and the earth...