At the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the powerful minister Liu Yu fought in various parties, defeated the Huan clan, destroyed the Southern Yan, dingjing river, died In Shu, and attacked the Later Qin to seize Guanzhong, it can be said that in that era of chaos, Liu Yu was very likely to complete the great unification, and the Liu Song he established was also a powerful dynasty.
If he achieved hegemony, then Liu Song would inevitably become the first dynasty in history to complete unification from south to north, but why in the end Liu Song could only become a regime that divided the south and was unable to unify?
Simply put, it is destiny, and some things are really like heavenly destiny, and individual efforts cannot be reversed.
The first reason why Liu Song failed to complete the great unification was that the overlord Liu Yu rose too late.
This is a bit like Liu Bei in the Three Kingdoms period, a down-and-out Han dynasty relative, who fought for half a lifetime, and almost all of them lost battles, and escaping became his best play, and when he was old, he laid a foundation, and as a result, the fire of the Battle of Yiling burned Liu Bei's dream of hegemony to the ground.
Liu Yu's military ability is far higher than Liu Bei's, and his achievements can be described as brilliant, but he has the same dilemma as Liu Bei, that is, the rise is too late, and most of his life is wasted.
Liu Yu's ancestor was the younger brother of Emperor Liu Bang of Han Gao, in his early years his family was poor, he had done chopping firewood, farming, fishing and selling straw shoes, and he also lost his family because of gambling, such a person, it is estimated that no one is optimistic that he will become an emperor in the future, but as long as he established Liu Song to achieve great unification, then his name can definitely be compared to Liu Bang.
Then again, Liu Yu's early life was mixed, and it was very late when he joined the army.
In the third year of the Jin Dynasty (399), Sun En led the people to revolt, and at that time Liu Yu joined the army, but this was the problem, Liu Yu was born in 363, that is, he was almost 40 years old when he joined the army.
Book of Song. Emperor Wu's Chronicle of the First Year of Yixi,Yi Waited to Jiangjin,Broken Huan Qian, Huan Zhen,Jiangling Ping. Heavenly Son anyway.
In the first month of the fourth year, he was enlisted as an assistant, and was given the title of ShiZhong, Che Riding General, Kaifu Yi Tongsan Division, Yangzhou Thorn History, Lu Shangshu, and Xu Yan Erzhou Thorn History as before.
In 405, Liu Yu led an army to attack Jiankang and restore Emperor An of Jin, and it was only in 407 that he completely controlled the power of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and at this time he was 45 years old.
At this age, you can still say that he is still in the golden age of his career, but in ancient times, especially he was still a person who had been fighting outside for many years, this age was already too old, Liu Yu died of illness in 422, that is to say, after Liu Yu took power, he still had 15 years to go, but this was too short for Liu Yu, he did not have enough experience, and he could complete the one-by-one conquest of the northern regime under the premise of rectifying the interior.
The second point, and the extension of the first point, I don't know if it is because Liu Yu was too indulgent in his early years, so no one can look up to him, and the result is that he wants to have children too late, especially in that era.
Liu Yu was already 60 years old when he died, but how old was his eldest son when he succeeded to the throne? Liu Yifu was only 17 years old when he succeeded to the throne, good guy, I called it good guy.
This age gap, let alone that era, is put to the present, this age is also the relationship between grandfather and grandchildren, where is the relationship between father and son?
As a result, the young Liu Yifu was not a rival of the Liu Song Gongchen clique at all, and he was picked up when he became emperor for two years.
Book of Song. The Chronicle of the Young Emperor", when the dynasty was not rising, the soldiers entered, killed the two attendants on the side of the emperor, and wounded the emperor's finger. After helping out of DongHao, he received the seal, and the group of ministers bowed down and sent it to the East Palace, and then they were hidden in Wu County.
Liu Yu's second son, Liu Yizhen, is even more of a pit cargo.
At the beginning, Liu Yu's last Northern Expedition, the momentum was like a rainbow, destroyed Later Qin, entered Chang'an, captured Guanzhong, and had a great situation of unifying the world, but because of the changes in the rear, Liu Yu could only take over the division.
At that time, Liu Yu left his second son Liu Yizhen, leading many famous generals to guard Guanzhong.
Book of Song. In the twelfth year of the third king of Wu, the army from the Northern Expedition entered Chang'an, stayed behind in the Valley of the Valley, and rode a regular attendant except for the members, and did not worship.
Shen Tianzi killed Wang Zhen evil, and Wang Xiu killed Tian Zi at the same time. Righteousness is true and young, and the gifts are not in moderation, the cultivation is often cut, and the left and right are resentful.
Gao Zu sent the general LingShi (硃令石) to replace Yizhen in Guanzhong, so that Yizhen's light troops returned quickly. The generals will compete for goods, carry more children, and travel on the tracks, and chase after them.
But when Liu Yizhen followed the army into Guanzhong, he was only 12 years old, where there were so many young male lords, he stayed in Guanzhong, he could not stop those fierce generals, and deliberately provoked contradictions between people.
In the face of the menacing Helian Bobo, he was powerless to resist, when the army withdrew, he also wantonly collected his property, good guys, the unified troops could not fight, but it was very good at looting money, and as a result, he was pursued by Helian Bobo, and he almost lost his life.
It can be said that Liu Yifu and Liu Yizhen were strong successors after Liu Yu's death, and after Liu Yifu was deposed, Liu Yizhen was also killed by the powerful minister Xu Xianzhi, and both of them were too young to be the opponents of those old fritters.
In the era of chaotic warfare and instability, it was necessary to have a hegemon like Liu Yu to stabilize the situation, but his successor, even if he was a young tiger, was still too small in the end, so after Liu Yu's death, Liu Song's national fortunes were like being cut off.
The third point is that Liu Muzhi, a heavy minister of the Liu Yu Group, died of illness at a critical moment.
Book of Song. The Biography of Liu Muzhi (劉穆之), Zi Daohe (字道和), Xiaozi Daomin (小字道民), Juren of Dongguan, Han Qi mourned The Queen of Hui, and lived in Jingkou.
Liu Muzhi was a descendant of Liu Fei, and Liu Fei was the son of Liu Bang and the mistress, and it can be said that Liu Yu and Liu Muzhi were all descendants of the Western Han Dynasty.
And Liu Muzhi in the Liu Yu group, is absolutely the core of the core, only Liu Muzhi town guarded in the rear, Liu Yu can rest assured and bold to fight on the front line, Liu Muzhi and Liu Yu, just like the relationship between Xiao He and Liu Bang.
Book of Song. The biography of Liu Mu "Mu Nei's general government, external supply to the military, decisive as a stream, nothing to delay.
To put it simply, with the existence of Liu Muzhi, Liu Yu can have no worries about the future, do not have to worry about Liu Muzhi's excessive power and stand on his own in the rear, he fights in the front, and does not have to worry about the problem of insufficient logistical supplies.
Here I would like to say, do not think that a general, with more than a hundred thousand troops outside can sit back and relax, indeed, in a chaotic world, the army is the most important sword to compete for the world, but the problem is that the army is composed of countless soldiers, and people have to eat.
Therefore, even if Liu Yu led the army outside and had the strongest troops, if there was a problem in the rear, the supply of grain and grass could not be improved, and the strong army immediately collapsed, at that time, the people who divided the rear only needed to shake their arms, and maybe Liu Yu's head would be cut off by the people below and exchanged for grain to eat.
However, such an important person died of illness after Liu Yu laid the guanzhong.
Book of Song. The Biography of Liu Mu "Gao Zu was in Chang'an, and he was shocked and mourned for several days. Ben wanted to drive in guanzhong, through Zhao and Wei. Mu Zhi was a pawn, Jingyi Renxu, Nai Chi returned to Pengcheng, and remained in charge of Sima XuXianzhi, while the imperial court often decided Mu Zhi's major affairs, and was consulted by the North.
At that time, Liu Yu was preparing to attack the Northern Wei in order to achieve the unification of the north, after all, he had already taken Guanzhong, and the morale of the army was high.
However, when Liu Mu died, he had to return to Jiankang, because he was going to stabilize the rear, and for Liu Yu, on the one hand, he was to unify the north, and on the other hand, he hurried back and did the matter of being called emperor first.
However, liu yu withdrew, the situation was reversed in an instant, Guanzhong gained and lost, and also damaged the elite generals, after returning to Jiankang, busy for several years of usurpation, Liu Yu said that the emperor was also hung up in a few years, and there was no time for the Northern Expedition.
And Liu Yu was the male lord of that era, after his death, Liu Song's Northern Expedition was no longer so fierce, and Liu Yilong's Northern Expedition only left a sentence of "Yuan Jia Caocao".
Fourth, the North has a strong presence.
In the late period of Liu Yu, the strength of the north is not to say that it is at a disadvantage, and they also have the capital to compete for the world.
One is the Helian Bobo who founded Huxia.
Book of Jin. Helian Bo Bo Zai Ji (河連布布載記) "Bo Bo Shan Zhi," with Zi Xuan du to supervise the forward military forces, led the Fu army to the general, led the 20,000 southern expeditions to Chang'an, the former general Helian Changtun Bing Tong Guan, with Maide as the right long history of the Fu army, the southern break of qingni, and the bo lead the large army to follow. To Weiyang, the descender belongs to the road.
At the beginning of Liu Yu's attack on Guanzhong, he behaved very obediently and did not mean to provoke Liu Yu.
However, shortly after Liu Yu withdrew from Guanzhong, he directly tore off his hypocritical features, immediately led a large army to the south, and took advantage of the infighting among the generals liu Yu remained in Guanzhong to take Guanzhong in a big way.
At the same time, for Liu Yu, the strongest opponent in the north was the Tuoba clan of Northern Wei.
Long before Liu Yu's rise, Tuoba Jue in the north took the opportunity to restore the state of Daiguo, and later changed the name of the country to Wei.
Book of Wei. Taizu Ji moved the capital to Pingcheng, Shiying Palace, Jianzong Temple, and Lisheji.
In 398, Tuoba Jue moved the capital to Pingcheng, which is today's Datong, and the Northern Wei began the road of expansion, more importantly, although Tuoba Jue indulged in wine in his later years, he also made positive reforms to promote the Tuoba Xianbei regime into feudal society, so the Northern Wei gradually began to Sinicize, so that it had the ability to become a powerful regime for the final unification of the Northern Expedition.
His next emperor Tuoba Tao was even more severe, and Liu Song could not find the north, tuoba Tao once drank horses on the Yangtze River, making Liu Yilong's Northern Expedition a tragedy.
In general, Liu Yu, as a hegemon, is indeed rare in a hundred years, but the Liu Song he established cannot unify the world, can only be said to be the destiny of heaven, everything seems to be destined.
References to book of Song. Book of Song. Biography of Liu Mu", Book of Song. The Three Kings of Wu", Book of Song. The Book of Jin. The Book of Wei. Taizu Ji