In 350, Ran Min proclaimed himself emperor, with the name of Wei (魏), the capital of Dingdu (定邺, in present-day Anyang, Henan), and the historical name Ran Wei.
This matter had to start with Prince Shi Huli. Later Zhao Emperor Shi Hu was tyrannical and successively created two princes, and as a result, these two princes were as tyrannical as he was, and both wanted to kill Shi Hu, but they were all killed by Shi Hu.
After experiencing the rebellion of his own son, Shi Hu listened to the words of his subordinate minister Zhang Jackal, believing that these sons betrayed themselves because their mother was from a lowly background, so Shi Hu made Liu Shi's son Shi Shi the crown prince and Liu Shi the empress. Liu Shi was not only young and beautiful, but also from a noble origin, and was the daughter of liu yao, the former emperor of Zhao.
Zhang Jackal did this to maintain his position, because it was he who dedicated liu to Shi Hu. Shi Hu did not feel that things were not good until he was seriously ill, and when he was in a better physical condition, he had asked his son Shi Bin to come and say that he wanted to pass on the jade seal to him, at this time the government had been controlled by Liu Shi and Zhang Jackal, and no one dared to move. Zhang Jackal was afraid that the matter would be revealed, so he conspired with Liu Shi and executed Shi Bin under false will. Another of Shi Hu's sons, Shi Zun, had asked to visit his father, but was also stopped by Liu's false edict, and Shi Zun left Yecheng in tears.
In 349, after Shi Hu's death, Shi Shi took the throne. Shi Shi was only 10 years old at the time, and it was the so-called lord who was suspicious of the country, and the internal strife in Later Zhao began.
Shi Zun's men persuaded him to raise an army to seize power, so Shi Zun ordered Shi Min to be the vanguard and sent troops straight to Yecheng. Shi Min is Ran Min, he was originally a Han Chinese, and his father Ran Liang was a general of the Beggar Army. After Ran Liang was defeated and captured, Shi Hu adopted him as his adopted son, so according to the generation, Ran Min was Shi Hu's adopted grandson. Ran Min is brave and good at war, and is highly valued by Shi Hu.
Shi Zun wants Ran Min to sell his life for him, and promises to make him the crown prince after the matter is completed.
The soldiers and people of Yecheng did not like Zhang Jackal, so after Shi Zun's army came, a large number of Yecheng soldiers and civilians surrendered, and Yecheng was quickly captured. Shi Zun killed Zhang Jackal and soon replaced Shi Shi as emperor, and Shi Shi and Liu Shi were also killed.
However, Shi Zun did not make Ran Min the crown prince, but instead made Shi Bin's son the crown prince, and tried to suppress Ran Min. Ran Min made countless meritorious achievements and felt that he was very wronged, so he had the idea of rebellion. Some ministers had advised Shi Zun to get rid of Ran Min, but Shi Zun was a mother treasure man and asked his mother Empress Zheng for instructions, but his mother did not agree and gave up. Ran Min learned of this and sent his men to lead 3,000 soldiers to kill Shi Zun, and Shi Jian, the third son of Li Shi Hu, was made the new king.
After Shi Jian ascended the throne, he was forced to make Ran Min a great general, and in fact he had become Ran Min's puppet. He was not reconciled, so he sent Shi Bao and others to assassinate Ran Min at night, but the result was unsuccessful, and Shi Jian was afraid that the matter would be exposed, so he even beheaded Shi Bao and the others at night. Not long after, the General Sun Fudu of the Qiang Clan gathered 3,000 dead soldiers of the Qi Clan to prepare to hold Shi Jian hostage and then booby-trap Ran Min, and Shi Jian persuaded Sun Fudu to kill Ran Min directly without having to report to him. Sun Fudu took people to attack Ran Min, but he did not capture it and retreated to Fengyang Gate. Ran Min, who had eased up, counterattacked with thousands of soldiers and killed Sun Fudu and others.
After these two encounters, Ran Min realized that he was not tolerated by the regime established by the Qiang people as a Han Chinese, so he issued an order: All Hu people who dared to take weapons should be killed. Many Hu people panicked and prepared to flee the city, some attacking the city gate, some escaping over the wall. Ran Min found that the Hu people really did not have different hearts with themselves, so he issued another order: those who share the same heart with the government stay, and do not have the same heart. As a result, the city gates were wide opened, the Hu people ran outside the city, the Han people entered from outside the city, and the two sides fought at the city gate.
So Ran Min issued a third order: All Han Chinese, who kill a Hu person, can be promoted to a knight by virtue of their heads. This is the famous slaughter of Hu Ling, all of a sudden, the bloody massacre began, Ran Min personally led the army to massacre the People, both men, women and children, more than 200,000 people were killed, and some people were also killed just because they looked like Hu People. After the bloody purges, Ran Min was able to grasp the power steadily.
In 350, Shi Kun, another son of Shi Hu, led more than 70,000 people to attack Yecheng, and Ran Min led more than 1,000 cavalry to launch a charge. Ran Min held a two-edged spear and bravely killed the enemy, defeating Shi Kun and beheading the enemy for 3,000. Later, Shi Jian, who was imprisoned by Ran Min, also tried to contact foreign aid to recruit Ran Min, and Ran Min knew about this and killed Shi Jian, and together with more than thirty of Shi Hu's grandsons, the Shi family was almost killed.
After that, Ran Min established himself as emperor and established Great Wei, known in history as Ran Wei.
In the first month of 350 (the sixth year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty), the Eastern Jin dynasty sent envoys to Fangtou (枋頭, in present-day Xun County, Henan), and made the clan leader Fu Hong the Prince of the Clan and the Great General of Zhengbei, the Governor of Hebei And the History of Jizhou, and the Duke of Guangchuan County.
Gong Hong accepted the appointment, and from then on he broke away from Later Zhao and switched to the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Xiang Hong was originally a general of Later Zhao, and Emperor Shi Hu of Zhao relied heavily on him during his reign. In November of the fifth year of Yonghe (349), as soon as Shi Jian, the third son of Emperor Wu of Zhaowu, took the throne, he sent envoys to Fangtou to appoint Fu Hong as the general of The Western Expedition, the Pastor of Yongzhou, and the Assassin of Qin Prefecture.
Gong Hong refused. The counselor Cheng Pu advised him to accept it, and Gong Hong was furious and asked: Am I not worthy to be the Son of Heaven? Why give him a courtesy? He then beheaded Cheng Pu and, in early 350, accepted an appointment from the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Why did Xiang Hong rebel against Zhao and surrender to Jin? This also starts from the relationship between Gong Hong and the Later Zhao Shi clan.
Gong Hong, a descendant of the Pu clan of the Liuyang (present-day Qin'an Longcheng, Gansu), has been a clan chieftain for generations. The Book of Jin records that Gong Hong's brain was intelligent and quick, and he was very good at fighting, riding horses and archery, and his prestige among the clan was very high.
In 319, former Zhao lord Liu Yao proclaimed himself emperor in Chang'an, and Fu Hong led his people to surrender to Former Zhao.
In the fourth year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (329), Shi Hu, who was still the Duke of Zhongshan of Later Zhao, defeated the Former Zhao army at Yiqu (present-day Ning County, Gansu), killing nearly 10,000 People of the Liu Clan and Former Zhao officials and Xiongnu troops.
After Liu Yao was defeated by Shi Hu, Xiang Hong retreated to the area of Longshan (southern Ningxia), shi Hu came to attack, and Xiang Hong saw that the situation was not good, and did not hesitate to surrender his weapons. Shi Hu was overjoyed, believing that he was a talent who knew the times, so he went to Shi Le and made him a champion general to manage the affairs of the western region. As a result, Gong Hong entered the power center of Later Zhao.
Gong Hong was able to gain a foothold in Hou Zhao and gained the weight of Shi Hu, thanks to his keen political acumen. After Shi Hu usurped power and ascended the throne, he proposed to move Haojie and people of insight in Guanzhong, as well as the forces of the Qianghu ethnic groups, to the capital city of Yicheng (邺城, in modern Linzhang, Hebei). In this way, it can recruit talents and stabilize the Beijing division; second, it can effectively contain the remote Qianghu forces.
Shi Hu was deeply impressed, so he appointed Gong Hong as the general of Long Jun and the governor of Liu Renren, and asked him to supervise the matter specifically.
Later, because of his repeated military achievements, Hehong was given the title of Duke of Xiping County. More than 2,000 of his subordinates were given the title of Marquis of Guannei, and As a result, GongHong became the Marquis of Guannei, and his power fell for a while, becoming a powerful faction of Later Zhao.
In 349, Shi Hu died of illness in Yecheng, and was succeeded by the crown prince Shi Shi. Shi Hu's adopted grandson Ran Min supported the usurpation of the throne by Shi Zun, the Prince of Qi.
When Ran Min was still serving as a guerrilla general under Shi Hu, he was very jealous of Fu Hong, and he also suggested to Shi Hu to get rid of Fu Hong to avoid future troubles, but Shi Hu did not listen at that time.
When Shi Zun ascended the throne, Ran Min encouraged Shi Zun again, ran Min supported the army to respect himself, and Shi Zun could not afford to provoke him, so he removed Shi Hong from his post as governor and ordered him to retire to Fangtou (枋頭, in present-day West Xun County, Henan).
Shi Hu's original judgment was correct. Gong Hong is indeed "aware of current affairs".
At this time, he had realized that first of all, where there was Ran Min, there would be no He Zhihong; secondly, Ran Min was not a thing in the pool, and when Zhao zhao was finished, he would have to seize the time to find another way.
Therefore, as soon as Gong Hong arrived at Fangtou, he sent envoys to the south to Jiankang and expressed his willingness to be a vassal to the Eastern Jin court.
At the same time, as Gong Hong had predicted, Shi Zun had been on the throne for less than half a year before he was murdered by his younger brother Shi Jian and Ran Min. Ran Min hugged Li Shi Jian again. The Shi clan was in a mess, and Ran Min's heart to seize power was known to passers-by.
Shi Jian appointed Zhi Hong, but he wanted to use Xiang Hong to contain Ran Min.
At the end of 349, Ran Min did kill Shi Jian, usurped the throne and established ran Wei, occupying the Central Plains.
On the other hand, Gong Hong was not idle in Fangtou, taking advantage of the internal strife in Later Zhao and Ran Min's seizure of power, and began to cultivate and develop his own forces. He recruited talents and accepted displaced people in Fangtou, and soon "the crowd reached more than 100,000" and divided one side.
However, at that time, the Central Plains were united: the remnants of Later Zhao, Shi Qi, established themselves as kings in the old capital of Xiangguo, supported by the Qiang people Yao Yizhong; Ran Min occupied The City of Yicheng; Murong Shi dominated the Guandong and looked at the Central Plains; among this group, the Fu clan was still relatively weak.
The Eastern Jin Dynasty court saw the sudden changes in the Central Plains, and was trying to make Hu hu and reap the benefits of the fisherman, so Gong Hong sent it to the door himself. Therefore, he was appointed as the general of the Northern Expedition and specialized in the Northern Expedition.
And Gong Hong also had his own calculations, he had already looked at the barren and empty Fertile Land of Guanzhong.
Guanzhong has Qinling Mountains in the south, Longshan Mountains in the west, loess plateau in the north, Huashanqi Mountain in the east and jin southwest mountains in the east, plus the Yellow River surrounds it, which has been called "the mountain belt river since ancient times, and the four plugs are solid". Occupy Guanzhong, enter, and exit Tong Pass into the North China Plain; retreat, you can defend yourself according to The Pass.
For him, demotion was only a temporary measure, so that the division could be famous and occupy Guanzhong.
As Cheng Pu said when he killed Cheng Pu at that time, Xiang Hong was not a thing in the pool, he took it step by step, and had already made a plan to plot the world.
In the sixth year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (350), Fu Hong was killed by Later Zhao's general Ma Qiu with poisoned wine. On the verge of death, Xiang Hong urgently summoned Ai Zi to the key and explained the aftermath: After I die, you quickly entered the customs, the situation in the Central Plains is complicated, and you can't figure it out!
In this way, Gong Hong's plan fell on the shoulders of the Fu descendants, and until his grandson Zhi Jian's generation, he still took the plot against the world as the ultimate goal.