The grandson of the Fei general Li Guang and the descendants of the Western Han rebel general Li Ling founded the most powerful empire in northern China.
According to the Zizhi Tongjian, Xiao Zixian, a historian of Southern Liang, believes that the ancestor of the Xianbei Tuoba tribe was the Han general Li Ling.
Initially, Li Ling with 5,000 old and weak infantry to cooperate with Li Guangli, the general of the Second Division, attacked the Xiongnu and was surrounded by more than 100,000 people from the main force of the Xiongnu. Li Ling fought until he ran out of ammunition, and his troops suffered countless casualties, and none of them gave in. In order to protect the remnants for the future, Li Ling pretended to surrender. Unfortunately, the Han Wudi Liu Chegang was stunned, mean and unkind, and slaughtered Li Ling's entire family in a fit of rage, so that Li Ling could not return to Han.
Tragic hero Li Ling
The Xiongnu respected Li Ling as a descendant of the Longxi Li clan and the grandson of the Fei general Li Guang, so they married their daughter Princess Tuoba to Li Ling. Because the Xiongnu took the surname of their mother, Li Ling's children took the surname Tuoba, and finally formed the Tuoba tribe.
As for how the Tuoba tribe transformed from the Xiongnu to Xianbei, this is also an interesting historical process.
The Xiongnu rose in the late Qin and early Han dynasties, and was attacked by Wei Qing, Huo Qubing, and Chen Tang successively in the Western Han Dynasty, splitting into five parts; In the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was attacked by the great general Dou Xian, one completely fell to the Han regime, and the other gradually traveled west, to Europe to the Hoho Romans, and the Roman Empire eventually collapsed.
Chen Tang: Those who violate my strong man, although they will be condemned from afar
It is said that this is a chain reaction. The Huns drove out the Gauls, the Gauls drove out the Visigoths, and the Visigoths destroyed Rome.
In this long historical process, those Xiongnu who did not move west, hundreds of thousands of people, fearing the retaliation of the Han Dynasty, directly transferred their hukou and became Xianbei people. It is estimated that the Tuoba tribe mixed with Xianbei during this period.
In 386, Tuoba of the Tuoba tribe took advantage of the fragmentation of Former Qin to proclaim himself the king of Niuchuan, rebuilt the kingdom of Dai, and established the capital Shengle (present-day Hohhot City and Linger County in Inner Mongolia). In April of the same year, he was renamed King of Wei. In June 398, the state was officially named "Wei", and the historical name was "Northern Wei". After the determination of Northern Wei Taizu Tuoba Jue and Shizu Tuoba Tao, he finally unified northern China. The Northern Wei Dynasty was the most powerful empire during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, reigning for 148 years.
In 534 (the third year of Yongxi), Northern Wei split into Eastern Wei and Western Wei.