The previous article talked about the beginning of the Wuhu Chaohua, and this one continues the previous one, mainly to sort out the overall historical context of the Wuhu and Sixteen Kingdoms, and after reading this article, you can clearly understand a general situation of the Wuhu and Sixteen Kingdoms.
The history of the Wuhu and Sixteen Kingdoms was connected to the Western Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and then the Sui Dynasty ended the confrontation between the Northern and Southern Dynasties and opened the era of great unification again.
Compared with the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms are more complex and chaotic, but they can still be sorted out in one line.
And this history has to start with the rebellion of the Eight Kings of the Western Jin Dynasty.
Troubled times begin: The Rebellion of the Eight Kings led to the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty
At the end of the Three Kingdoms, two years after the fall of Shu Han, Sima Zhao's son Sima Yan usurped Cao Wei Jiangshan and established himself as emperor, with the country name "Jin", known as the Western Jin Dynasty in history.
Sima Yan defeated Eastern Wu in 280 and completed the unification of the world, and history entered a short era of great unification.
However, there were three fatal problems in the Western Jin Dynasty:
First, the Western Jin Dynasty did not handle the relationship with the surrounding ethnic groups well, and the imperial court and local ministers excessively exploited the surrounding ethnic groups, and they have been oppressing the people of all ethnic groups, which caused serious ethnic contradictions.
Second, Emperor Sima Yan of the Jin Dynasty divided dozens of princes and kings, and granted the princes and kings the power to take charge of the army, sowing the seeds for the rebellion of the eight kings.
Third, Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty was arrogant and lascivious in his later years, degenerate in government affairs, and the most serious thing is that a bad atmosphere of extravagance was formed in the Western Jin Dynasty.
Under this kind of atmosphere, from the emperor to the ministers and nobles, they became arrogant and lascivious, extravagant, lazy and lazy, and only cared about enjoying a luxurious life, completely ignoring the life and death of the people at the bottom.
The so-called "Zhumen dog meat stinks, and there are frozen bones on the road" is probably a portrayal of that era, which caused class contradictions between the people at the bottom and the ruling groups at the top.
After the outbreak of the Eight Kings Rebellion, these three fatal problems were detonated at one time, and finally the entire Western Jin Dynasty was buried.
After Sima Yan's death, his son Sima Zhen succeeded to the throne as Emperor Hui of Jin, but Sima Zhen was an intellectually disabled person, although he was an adult, his IQ was not much different from that of a child.
Therefore, the government was in the hands of his relative Yang Jun at the beginning, but Empress Jia Nanfeng's ambitions were inflated and she also wanted to monopolize power, so she kept trying to bring down Yang Jun and take power alone.
In 291, Jia Nanfeng united with Sima Wei, the king of Chu, to launch a coup d'état and killed Yang Jun, but the power of the court fell into the hands of Sima Liang, the king of Runan, and the meritorious Wei Qiang.
In order to seize the supreme power, Jia Nanfeng and Sima Wei, the king of Chu, launched a mutiny and killed Sima Liang and Wei Qian, but Jia Nanfeng thought that Sima Wei was also a threat to his power, so he used a trick to execute Sima Wei, and the power of the Western Jin Dynasty was completely controlled by the demon queen Jia Nanfeng.
After that, the Western Jin Dynasty passed a period of stability for nearly ten years under the actual control of Jia Nanfeng, which was also the first stage of the Eight Kings Rebellion.
In 299, because the demon queen Jia Nanfeng had no son, she was worried that she would liquidate herself after the crown prince succeeded to the throne in the future, so she abolished the crown prince Sima Tong.
This move sparked opposition from the Western Jin Dynasty, and Sima Lun, the king of Zhao, and his generals mobilized the forbidden army to launch a mutiny, killed the demon queen Jia Nanfeng, and then poisoned the deposed prince, and soon after, Sima Lun abolished Emperor Hui of Jin and ascended the throne himself, and the second phase of the Eight Kings Rebellion broke out.
After Sima Lun became emperor, he made the court into a miasma, which caused dissatisfaction among other vassal kings.
Since then, several powerful vassal kings of the Western Jin Dynasty have competed for power in the Central Plains, during which several large-scale battles broke out, affecting the entire Central Plains, killing and wounding hundreds of thousands of people.
During this period, more than 100,000 displaced leaders who poured into Sichuan and Shu from the northwest, under the leadership of Li Te, Li Liu and others, raised troops to resist the Western Jin Dynasty and formed a separatist force.
In order to fight against Sima Ying, the king of the East China Sea, Sima Yue, together with his younger brother Sima Teng and Wang Jun in Youzhou, united with Xianbei, Qianzhu and other Hu people to attack Yecheng.
In order to enhance his military strength, Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu, recruited Liu Yuan, the leader of the Xiongnu, as his wings, and introduced the Xiongnu armed forces in Liu Yuan's hands as backup.
Soon after, a large-scale melee broke out among several major feudal kings, Sima Ying and Sima Hao were defeated by Sima Yue's Hu-Han coalition army, and Liu Yuan returned to the Xiongnu's settlement in Shanxi during this period, and was jointly elected as Da Danyu by the five Xiongnu tribes.
After Sima Ying's defeat, Liu Yuan quickly formed an army of 50,000 Xiongnu and declared himself to be the grandson of the emperor of the Han Dynasty, so he proclaimed himself the king of Han and divided himself in Shanxi.
This year, it was 304, the rebellion of the eight kings entered the end of the period, Liu Yuan was the king at the same time, after the death of Li Tezhan on the side of Sichuan and Shu, his son became the new leader, and swept Xichuan, then cut Shuzhong, and also called himself the king of Han.
In 306, Sima Yue killed Sima Ying and Sima Hao and became the final victor of the Eight Kings Rebellion, but he was not the one to have the last laugh.
Because in this year, Li Xiong, a member of the Di nationality, was called the emperor in Sichuan and Shu, and the country name was "Dacheng", and Liu Yuan, a Hun person, also announced that he was the emperor, in order to distinguish between the two regimes, the Li Xiong regime in Shu was called "Cheng Han" in history, and the regime of Liu Yuan was called "Han Zhao/Qianzhao".
After the end of the Eight Kings Rebellion, the elite army of the Western Jin Dynasty had suffered heavy losses in the melee of the Eight Kings Rebellion, and their vitality was greatly damaged, and they could only sit back and watch Liu Yuan and Li Xiong separate, and they were unable to crusade at all.
The most serious thing is that during the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, there were constant melees, coupled with natural disasters, the common people were miserable and fell into dire straits, so peasant uprisings broke out frequently.
After Sima Yue achieved victory, he seized great power, and soon after poisoned Emperor Hui of Jin, a stupid emperor, and established Sima Chi with a normal IQ as emperor, for Emperor Huai of Jin.
But at this time, the interior of the Western Jin Dynasty was already dilapidated, and it was only one step away from extinction.
After Liu Yuan became emperor, he completely broke with the Western Jin Dynasty court, and also had to compete with the Sima family for the world, so he sent troops to attack the city everywhere, but the Western Jin Dynasty court had no ability to resist at all, and Liu Yuan's territory became bigger and bigger.
However, only Luoyang, the capital of the Western Jin Dynasty, could not be attacked, and the two sides fell into a short period of confrontation.
In 310, Liu Yuan died of illness, and his son Liu He ascended the throne as emperor, but Liu Yuan's other sons and generals Wang Mi, Shi Le and others all had heavy troops, which aroused Liu He's suspicion, so Liu He decided to strike first, and was killed by Liu Yuan's fourth son, Liu Cong.
Subsequently, Liu Cong announced his ascension to the throne as emperor.
As early as when Liu Yuan was alive, Liu Cong often led his army to fight, with strong ability and great ambition, in order to completely destroy the Western Jin Dynasty, he sent a large army to attack Luoyang again.
In 311, in the face of the attack of Liu Cong's army, Sima Yue abandoned Emperor Huai of Jin and left Luoyang with his army and the Luoyang garrison, and went outside to seek self-protection.
Soon after, Gou Xi, a local general who had a grudge against Sima Yue, wrote to Emperor Huai of Jin, claiming that Sima Yue's dictatorship was the source of the trouble, so Emperor Huai of Jin issued an edict ordering troops to be sent to attack Sima Yue.
After Sima Yue learned the news, he fought with Gou Xi several times, winning and losing each other, but not long after, Sima Yue died of illness in the fear of internal and external troubles.
His army was leaderless, besieged by Shile, the army plus the princes and nobles, a total of more than 100,000 people were annihilated, Luoyang fell immediately, Emperor Huai of Jin was captured on the way to Chang'an, and the Western Jin Dynasty entered a state of no emperor.
In 313, Emperor Huai of Jin was poisoned by Liu Cong's order, and the remnants of the Western Jin Dynasty supported Sima Ye as emperor in Chang'an, which was for Emperor Jin Shu.
But at this time, Chang'an and the Guanzhong area, due to perennial wars and natural and man-made disasters, have long been dilapidated, and the strength of the army is not strong enough.
In 316, Liu Yao, a general of the Han and Zhao regimes, broke through Chang'an, captured Emperor Jin and killed him in 318.
At this point, the Western Jin Dynasty, which had been established for 51 years, came to an end.
After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, Sima Rui, the king of Langya, who was entrenched in Jiangdong, announced his enthronement as the emperor under the support of the ministers, and was the emperor of the Jin Yuan Dynasty, and history has since entered the era of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
At this time in the north, there were still three local powerful factions in the Jin Dynasty that were still holding on.
The first is Liu Kun of Bingzhou (Taiyuan), who introduced Tuoba Xianbei as foreign aid and stuck to the area of Bingzhou, the second is Wang Jun of Youzhou, in addition to the elite of Youzhou, he took Duan's Xianbei as foreign aid, and the third is Zhang Liang of Liangzhou (died in 314), he sat in Liangzhou, controlled Longxi, and was strong.
The pattern of the world after the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty is roughly like this.
The era of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty
In the process of the destruction of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Han and Zhao regimes underwent drastic changes.
First, Shi Le used a trick to kill Wang Mi, the general of the Han and Zhao regimes, and annexed his subordinates, and Shi Le's strength swelled and began to be divided in the Hebei area.
During this period, Shi Le successively killed Liu Kun and Wang Jun of Youzhou with stratagems, completely mastered Hebei, and formed a strong separatist force, but nominally belonged to the Han and Zhao regimes.
In 318, Emperor Liu Cong of Han Zhao died of illness, and his son Liu Cang ascended the throne, and then ordered the killing of Emperor Jin Shu, but after Liu Cang ascended the throne, he indulged in wine and fun, and handed over all the major affairs of the court to his father-in-law, Jin Zhun.
After Jin Zhun seized power, his ambitions swelled, he launched a rebellion, killed Liu Cang, and tried to usurp power and seize the throne.
However, after Jin Zhun became independent, he was immediately attacked by the joint attack of Liu Yao and Shi Le, the fathers of the Han and Zhao regimes, and soon after, Jin Zhun was killed by Jin Kang, and Jin Ming was elected as the leader, and Jin Ming immediately surrendered to Liu Yao.
At that time, Shi Le's army had attacked Pingyang, the capital of the Han and Zhao regimes, and had already approached the city, and more than 100,000 people of all ethnic groups surrendered to Shi Le, but this Jin Ming actually bypassed himself and surrendered to Liu Yao, which made Shi Le very angry, so he attacked the city on a large scale.
Jin Ming immediately asked Liu Yao for help, Liu Yao quickly sent troops to respond, and moved everyone away, after Shi Le broke through Pingyang City, burned down the palace, and moved the armillary sphere and musical instruments in the city to Xiangguo (Xingtai, Hebei, Shile's lair).
At this point, Shi Le and Liu Yao turned their faces, but neither side dared to completely tear their faces.
Because in the Guanlong area occupied by Liu Yao, there are still ethnic groups such as Di and Qiang who have not been annexed, and the Zhang family in Liangzhou often invades, Liu Yao needs to free up his hands to deal with the armed forces in these places, so he does not dare to tear his face with Shi Le.
In the Hebei area, Shi Le needed to deal with the remnants of the Western Jin Dynasty and the Duan Xianbei who submitted to the Jin Dynasty, and the hero Zu Di of the Eastern Jin Dynasty launched the Northern Expedition, and Shi Le's territory bore the brunt, so he did not dare to tear his face with Liu Yao.
In this way, the two sides formed a tacit understanding, and each returned to its own territory to solve its own troubles.
In 319, Liu Yao was proclaimed emperor, and he was Liu Yuan's subordinate, so he inherited Liu Yuan's "Han" regime, but he still changed the country name to "Zhao", and was known as Qianzhao or Han Zhao in history.
In the same year that Liu Yao became emperor, Shi Le established himself as the king of Zhao, known as Later Zhao in history.
In this way, the "Han" regime established by Liu Yuan in the past was split into two separatist regimes of Former Zhao and Later Zhao, with Liu Yao and Shile as the lords respectively.
In the past, Zhang Liang, the assassin of Liangzhou appointed by the Western Jin Dynasty, died in 314, and his son Zhang Wei succeeded him.
The Zhang family was loyal to the Jin Dynasty, but after the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was far away in the south, and they could only stand on their own and divide themselves, and the Zhang regime was called "Qianliang".
In 320, Zhang Yu was assassinated, and the people elected Zhang Mao, the second son of Zhang Liang, as their leader.
At this point, the pattern of the world evolved into a situation of coexistence of five kingdoms, the north is the northwest of Qianliang, the former Zhao of Guanlong, and the latter Zhao of Hebei, the south is occupied by the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the southwest is Li Xiong's Cheng Han regime to divide Shuzhong.
In this way, history entered a brief situation of separation between the five countries.
Image source: Map Emperor
In the following time, the former Zhao Emperor Liu Yao pacified the opposition forces of the Di and Qiang tribes in the northwest after many battles, and forced Zhang Mao of the former Liang to claim the vassal of the former Zhao by force, and Zhang Mao was also named the king of Liang by the former Zhao.
Later, Zhao's Shile, under many conquests and strategies, eradicated the remnants of the Western Jin Dynasty in the area of Youzhou (now Beijing).
But there is one person, even Shi Le can't move, this person is called Zu Di, a famous hero in the Eastern Jin Dynasty in history, after he waved the Northern Expedition, he played a good situation, recovered a lot of lost territory, and occupied Yuzhou (most of Henan), and Shi Le long-term confrontation.
But at this time, the Eastern Jin Dynasty court was actually in turmoil.
Don't look at the Eastern Jin Dynasty established a court in the south and set up an emperor, but in fact, the imperial power of the emperors of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was restricted.
We all know that the Eastern Jin Dynasty was an era of gate valve politics, and the influence of the family on the government was extremely high.
Sima Rui was able to claim the title of emperor in Jiangdong and establish the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was supported by the gate valve forces led by the Wang family, so that he could be called the emperor, but after Sima Rui became emperor, his imperial power was restricted by the Wang family.
At that time, in the Wang family, Wang Dao was the prime minister, leading the government and Wang Dun was in charge of the army, so the power of the court and the military were all in the hands of the Wang family, and the emperor was actually seriously constrained.
During the crusade of Liu Yao and Shi Le in the north to clear the opposition on their respective territories, serious civil strife also broke out in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Wang Dun, who held the military power, rebelled, and Emperor Sima Rui organized military forces to resist, but they were all defeated, and finally became a puppet, and in 323, he died in depression, and the rebellion of Wang Dun ended in 324.
On the eve of the civil strife in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the famous Northern Expedition general Zu Di died of illness, and his younger brother Zu Yue took over his people, but Zu Yue's ability was very limited and he was not Shi Le's opponent.
Shi Le seized the opportunity and sent troops to break through Yuzhou, forcing Zu Yue to retreat to Shouchun, and then sent troops to break through Cao Wei, who had seized Qingzhou (Shandong).
At this point, Shile occupied the entire Central Plains.
From 324 onwards, the two giants, Shile and Liu Yao, began to collide continuously, and armed conflicts broke out between the two sides many times, which eventually evolved into the ultimate Armageddon.
In 328, Liu Yao and Shi Le, two former generals under Liu Yuan, fought a decisive battle in Luoyang, and Shi Le finally defeated the Former Zhao army, and captured the former Zhao emperor Liu Yao, who was killed the following year.
From then on, Shile's Later Zhao Empire completed the basic unification of the northern core region, but the north of Shanxi was still occupied by Tuoba Xianbei, Liaoxi (part of the northeast) was occupied by Murong Xianbei, and the Hexi region (Gansu and Qinghai area) was occupied by the Zhang family's former Liang regime.
During the decisive battle between the two empires of Former Zhao and Later Zhao, the Eastern Jin Dynasty civil strife resurged, after the death of Emperor Sima Rui of Jin Yuan, his son Emperor Jin Ming ascended the throne, but Emperor Jin Ming was short-lived, died within a few years, and Sima Yan, the son of Emperor Jin Ming, ascended the throne for Emperor Jin Cheng.
During Sima Yan's reign, the rebellion of Su Jun and Zu Yue broke out in 327, and yes, Zu Di's younger brother participated in this rebellion, which was not put down until 329.
In 330, Shile was proclaimed emperor, but Shile died of illness in 333, and his nephew Shi Hu usurped Shile's country, and Shi Hu did not immediately claim the title of emperor after usurping the throne, but proclaimed himself the king of heaven.
After that, during the more than ten years of Shi Hu's rule, drastic changes took place in the north.
The first is the rise of the Xianbei people.
The distribution of Xianbei people is very extensive, in the northwest there are bald Xianbei, begging Xianbei, the northern grassland has Tuoba Xianbei, Yuwen Xianbei, the northeast has Murong Xianbei, Duan's Xianbei.
Both Murong Xianbei and Duan Xianbei were subservient to the Jin Dynasty and also accepted the title of the Jin Dynasty.
After the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, the Central Plains was in turmoil, and a large number of people and scholars from the Central Plains moved south, but some of them moved to the north, some of them moved to Houliang, which was controlled by the Zhang family, and some of them moved to Murong Xianbei in the northeast.
At that time, Murong Xianbei's leader Murong Diao received a large number of Han people and scholars, and some talented people assisted him in governing Xianbei and taught Murong Diao the advanced governance methods of the Central Plains Dynasty ruling the people.
Murong Diao was relatively friendly to the people and scholars who migrated from the Central Plains, and with the assistance of the Han people, he soon divided a separate land on his own territory for the people of the Central Plains to cultivate and live, and gave him generous treatment in taxes, which greatly improved Murong Xianbei's social productivity and strength.
Murong Diao submitted to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, so he was also named the Duke of Liaodong County by the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
In 333, the year that Shi Le died of illness, Murong Diao also died of illness and was succeeded by his son Murong Hao, but there was a power struggle within Murong Xianbei, and soon after, Murong Hao won.
Murong Hao was an ambitious man, and during his reign, Yuwen Xianbei and Duan Xianbei were old enemies, and in order to destroy these enemies, he declared himself a vassal to Shi Hu, the ruler of Later Zhao.
Then he joined forces with the Later Zhao army to defeat Duan's Xianbei, and then turned against Shi Hu, and defeated Shi Hu's army many times.
After eliminating Duan's Xianbei and defeating Yuwen Xianbei, Murong Hao established himself as king in 337, because Murong Xianbei's territory was in the south of the northeast and was the hometown of Yan in the Warring States Period, so Murong Xianbei changed the name of the country to "Yan State", calling himself King Yan, known as Qianyan in history.
After becoming king, Murong Hao also defeated Goguryeo, forcing the king of Goguryeo to become a vassal to Qianyan, and then completely destroyed Yuwen Xianbei, and his strength increased greatly.
However, Murong Hao nominally submitted to the Eastern Jin Dynasty and accepted the title of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but in fact he was a self-reliant regime.
During this period, the internal problems of Shi Hu's Later Zhao regime were also very serious.
First, Shi Hu's sons killed each other in order to compete for power, and later Shi Hu himself was involved in these struggles, and for this reason he personally killed a son in a cruel way.
However, Shi Hu and his sons are not good birds, they belong to the big devils who do a lot of evil, but these big devils kill each other for power.
As a result, the political situation in Later Zhao was very unstable.
Second, Shi Hu and his sons in power were cruel, murderous, and extravagant and hedonistic tyrannical figures, who brought great suffering to the people.
During Shi Hu's reign, he was absurd and cruel, killing ministers and people at will, killing people seemed to be a pleasure for their family, and Shi Hu's governance of Hou Zhao was very poor and exploited excessively.
As a result, the people were in dire straits, and uprisings broke out everywhere on the territory of the Later Zhao regime to resist Shi Hu's rule.
The wheel of history is stumbling forward in such a state full of wars, killings, and people's misery.
In 347, after the political situation of the Eastern Jin Dynasty entered a period of stability, General Anxi and Jingzhou Assassin Shi Huanwen led an army into Shu and defeated the Cheng Han regime in Shu in one fell swoop.
This was also the first great victory since the Eastern Jin Dynasty favored the south, and since then, the land of Sichuan and Shu has once again been included in the rule of the Jin Dynasty.
In 348, Murong Hao, the ruler of the former Yan regime, was injured and killed during a hunt, and was succeeded by his son Murong Jun.
In 349, Shi Hu was proclaimed emperor, and this brutal tyrant also died of illness in the year he became emperor.
After Shi Hu's death, Hou Zhao quickly fell into civil strife and then fell apart, and there was a key figure in this - Ran Min.
Since Ran Min's matter is more complicated and cumbersome, I will only mention it here.
Before Shi Hu died, he was critically ill, delirious, sometimes awake, sometimes unconscious, so there was no way to make an edict and establish a prince.
Shi Hu's wife, Empress Liu, took the opportunity to kill the core figures of the opposition forces, and then set up her son Shi Shi as the crown prince in the name of Shi Hu.
Since Shi Shi was only 10 years old, the power of the court was held by Empress Dowager Liu and Minister Zhang Yun.
At this time, Shi Hu's other son, Shi Zun, thought that the throne should be his own, and it was Empress Dowager Liu who made Shi Shi the emperor, so he was very dissatisfied.
Ran Min's father was originally Shi Hu's adopted son, but later died in battle, and Ran Min was also Shi Hu's adopted grandson, and his name was still Shi Min at this time.
In this battle for the throne, Shi Min chose to support Shi Zun.
Shi Zun was not in the capital at that time, so with the support of generals from all walks of life, he raised troops to crusade against Empress Dowager Liu and Zhang Jackal, and said to Shi Min: You have to work hard and make you the crown prince in the future.
Soon after, Shi Zun, with the support of Shi Min (Ran Min), led the army to kill the Empress Dowager Liu and Zhang Jackal, killed the little emperor, and then ascended the throne as the emperor.
After Shi Zun ascended the throne, he was opposed by Shi Hu's other sons, so serious civil strife broke out, so Shi Zun did not live well after he ascended the throne.
But Shi Zun did not fulfill his promise to make Shi Min the prince, but set up his nephew Shi Yan as the prince, which made Shi Min very unhappy.
Shi Zun also thought that Shi Min was a threat, so he plotted to kill Shi Min, but Shi Jian, the king of Yiyang, leaked the news to Shi Min.
As a result, Shi Min launched a mutiny, deposed the emperor Shi Zun, and established Shi Jian as the puppet emperor.
However, this move instantly caused an uproar in the Later Zhao Empire, and various vassal kings and local powerful factions announced their opposition to Shi Min one after another, and even sent troops to crusade.
Shi Min was originally a Han Chinese, but he was Shi Hu's adopted grandson, and he was also a theoretical Shi family, but he didn't have Hu blood, and now he became the leader of the Hu regime, but these Hu groups did not recognize him.
Shi Min finally figured out that if he wanted to gain support and support, he had to rely on the Han people, so he decisively issued an "order to kill Hu", and the Zhao people (Han people) would be rewarded for killing the Hu people.
Under the influence of the killing order, about 200,000 Xiongnu and Qianren were killed.
Later, Shi Min began to go to Shijiahua, changing his surname to Ran, called Ran Min, and at the same time establishing the Ran Wei regime.
Then, through many large-scale wars, Shi Hu's descendants were completely wiped out and the remnants of the Houzhao armed forces were defeated.
However, the only remaining remnants of the Later Zhao Dynasty were entrenched in Xiangguo (Xingtai, Hebei) headed by Shi Yuan, and could not resist Ran Min's attack, so he went to the emperor's name, changed his name to King Zhao, and took the jade seal of the country as the benefit to ask for help from Qianyan.
In this way, a large-scale war broke out between Former Yan and Ran Min, Ran Min was defeated and captured in 352, and Murong Jun, the king of Yan, invaded the Central Plains and proclaimed himself emperor.
During the period when Later Zhao fell into civil strife, the Guanzhong region underwent drastic changes.
Fu Hong, the leader of the Di people, was poisoned by Ma Qiu, the old general of Later Zhao Shihu, and Fu Hong's son Fu Jian inherited the position of leader and raised troops to resist, because Shi Hu was a desolate and cruel monarch, so the people of Guanzhong were dissatisfied with the rule of Later Zhao for a long time.
Therefore, Fu Jian raised his arms and shouted, and the Guanzhong and Qiang nationalities responded one after another, and Fu Jian first played the banner of the Jin Dynasty and declared himself a vassal to the Jin Dynasty, and received the support of the Han people, which made Fu Jian's power rise sharply, so he invaded Chang'an and seized the Guanlong region.
In 351, when Ran Min and the remnants of Former Yan and Later Zhao attacked each other, Fu Jian established himself as the king, and the country was called Daqin, known as the Great Qin Heavenly King and Dashan Yu, and was known as the former Qin in history.
At this stage, it was a split pattern of four countries standing side by side.
In the northwest is the former Liang regime of the Zhang family, in the Guanlong region is the former Qin regime of Fu Jian, in the Central Plains and parts of the northeast is the former Yan regime, and in the south is the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
In 352, Ran Min was defeated, Murong Jun of Former Yan was proclaimed emperor, and Fu Jian was also proclaimed emperor in this year, severing relations with the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Two years later, in 354, Huan Wen, a powerful minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, launched the first Northern Expedition, and the target of the crusade was the Former Qin.
But after Huan Wen invaded Guanzhong, suffered a big defeat and had to retreat to the territory of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, during which the secluded virtuous Wang Meng once came to visit, because Wang Meng was unwilling to follow, so he stayed in the north.
After that, Wang Meng will become the backbone of Fu Jian's camp.
In 355, Fu Jian fell ill and died, and the crown prince Fu Sheng succeeded to the throne, but Fu Sheng was brutal and caused chaos in Former Qin.
In 357, Fu Jian staged a coup d'état and seized supreme power.
After Fu Jian seized power, the greatest luck in his life was to reuse Wang Meng, who was from a humble background, and with the assistance of this person, Fu Jian made great achievements.
After that, Fu Jian worked hard, rested with the people, and pacified the civil strife, which made the former Qin national strength flourish.
During this period, Huan Wen went on a northern expedition to Qianyan in 369 and returned defeated.
After Huan Wen finished fighting with Qianyan on the front foot, Fu Jian launched the battle of Yan on the back foot, and defeated the Qianyan regime in 370, and in 376, Fu Jian sent troops to defeat the Qianliang regime in one fell swoop.
During Fu Jian's reign, in addition to making great efforts, he also conquered the east and the west, successively conquered the Daiguo, annexed Hanzhong and Sichuan Shu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, swept away the major separatist regimes in the north, completed the unification of the north, and even forced the Eastern Jin Dynasty to be on the defensive.
After unifying the north, Fu Jian obviously had the ambition to dominate the world, but his most important adviser Wang Meng died of illness in 375, and before he died, he advised him not to attack the Jin, because the Eastern Jin Dynasty inherited the orthodoxy, although it was peaceful, but it won the hearts of the people, and it was currently impossible to conquer.
Wang Meng also believed that the Xianbei and Qiangyu ethnic groups in the north were the old enemies of the former Qin, and if these threats were not removed in time, they would inevitably have endless troubles in the future.
Who knows, Fu Jian didn't listen to this at all.
In 383, Fu Jian invaded Jin and the Battle of Huangshui broke out, and Fu Jian was defeated and returned.
The royal family of the Xianbei Murong clan was treated well by Fu Jian at the beginning, but now it is just the opportunity to take advantage of Fu Jian's defeat to raise troops, and other Hu tribes have also declared their independence, and the unified north has fallen into division again.
In 383, the year of Fu Jian's defeat, Murong Chui, a descendant of the Former Yan Imperial Family, was the fifth son of Murong Hao, the founding emperor of the Former Yan.
This person took the opportunity to ask Fu Jian to go to Yecheng to visit the ancestors' tombs, in fact, he wanted to take the opportunity to sneak out to contact the old ministry and try to restore the country.
Fu Pi, the defender of Yecheng, then sent Murong Chui to suppress it, and allocated him 2,000 soldiers, and sent Fu Feilong to lead 1,000 Di cavalry as a supplement.
Who knows, when he was halfway there, Murong Chui led the army to attack Fu Fei and completely annihilated this former Qin Di armed force, and then, Ding Lingren Zhai Bin joined Murong Chui.
After the incident, Murong Chui announced the restoration of the Yan Kingdom, proclaimed himself the King of Yan, and was known as Hou Yan in history.
In 384, Murong Hong, a descendant of the former Yan royal family, heard that Murong Chui of Later Yan was attacking Yecheng, so he secretly crossed the Yellow River, gathered thousands of Xianbei people to raise troops in Huayin, and established himself as the king of Yan, known as Xiyan in history.
The territory of Xiyan is probably in the west of Shanxi, Henan is close to the part of Shanxi, and the east is bounded by the Taihang Mountain, facing Houyan across the mountain, and bordering the Northern Wei Dynasty in the north.
In this year, Yao Chang, a Qiang warlord in western Qin who had originally submitted to Former Qin, rebelled against Qin in Weibei, and Fu Jian led an army to defeat him and died in battle in 385.
The Qiang warlord Yao Chang established himself as emperor in Chang'an in 386, with the name of Qin and the historical name of Later Qin.
In 385, the leader of the Xianbei tribe in Longxi, Qifu Guoren, announced his independence and seceded in Longxi, with the country name of Qin, known as Western Qin in history.
In 383, Lü Guang, a member of the Di tribe, was ordered by Fu Jian to lead the army to the west to attack the Western Regions, and by 386, he had laid down a piece of territory, at this time Fu Jian was dead, and the former Qin fell apart, Lü Guang then declared his own independence, calling himself a general, Liangzhou Mu, and known as Houliang in history.
By 394, the former Qin had been in decline, and the emperor Fu Deng was defeated and killed in a battle with the Later Qin, and then the crown prince Fu Chong fled with the remnants of the former Qin to Huangzhong in Gansu to claim the emperor.
But this was the sphere of influence of Western Qin, so he was quickly expelled by Western Qin.
Fu Chong then defected to Yang Ding, the king of Longxi, and the two decided to jointly attack Western Qin, but they were defeated and killed, and Former Qin perished.
In 386, the Daiguo that was destroyed by Fu Jian in the past was originally a regime established by Tuoba Xianbei, but now Fu Jian was defeated and died, and Tuoba Jue took the opportunity to gather the old department, declare self-reliance, and restore the Daiguo.
Soon after, Tuoba changed the name of the country to "Wei", proclaimed himself the King of Wei, and was known as the Northern Wei Dynasty in history.
In the near future, this regime will once again complete the unification of the North.
In the decades that followed, the North-South pattern looked like this:
In 394, Murong Chui of Later Yan sent troops to attack Western Yan and defeated Western Yan in one fell swoop, after which Northern Wei and Later Yan went to war and attacked each other.
In 397, Hou Liang split into Southern Liang and Northern Liang, and later Southern Liang and Northern Liang were destroyed by Western Qin, and in 400 years, Later Qin sent troops to destroy Western Qin.
In 417, Liu Yu, a powerful minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, led an army to the north and defeated the Later Qin in one fell swoop.
In 420, Liu Yu usurped the Eastern Jin Dynasty and established himself as emperor, with the country name of Song, known as the Southern Song Dynasty or Liu Song in history.
After the rise of the Northern Wei Dynasty, it competed with Houyan for the world, but Houyan could not defeat it, and was finally forced to retreat to the northeast.
In 407, the minister Feng Bao staged a coup d'état and proclaimed Murong Yun as emperor, this Murong Yun was the adopted son of the Later Yan Emperor Murong Bao, and he was also a Goguryeo, so although he still used the name of Yan State, this regime was known as Northern Yan in history.
It was also in this year that Helian Bobo, a Southern Xiongnu, declared himself king and established the "Xia" regime, separating Shaanxi and the areas north of Shaanxi.
From 396 onwards, after the rise of the Northern Wei Dynasty, it launched numerous expeditions, first marching south to conquer Houyan, entering the Central Plains, and then defeating Northern Yan, Northern Liang and other large and small separatist regimes, and completing the unification of the north in 439.
History thus entered a period of confrontation between the north and the south, and was known as the North and South dynasties.
This is probably the case in the Wuhu and Sixteen Kingdoms, because there are too many separatist regimes, wars are too frequent, and there are too many and complicated incidents that it is difficult to explain this era clearly in one article.
That's just a rough idea.
In general, during this 135-year turbulent era, the wars in the north were many times more frequent than those in the south.
Although the Eastern Jin Dynasty regime in the south had many internal problems and civil strife, it was generally much more stable than the north, followed by the Sichuan and Shu regions, which were also much more stable than the north.
This is a dark era, an era in which the common people are in dire straits, and an era of great national integration.
It is worth noting that after the end of the era of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, the troubled times did not stop there, but lasted for more than a hundred years, until Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of Sui, launched the unification war and finally completed the unification, which began with the rebellion of the Eight Kings before the end of the troubled times.
However, the Sui Dynasty was short-lived, and did not bring many years of peace to the people of the world, and the Sui Dynasty soon fell apart again, until the Tang Dynasty unified the world, Li Shimin opened the rule of Zhenguan, and the world settled down.