When Liu Jun began to show signs of extravagance, his old rival Northern Wei was not idle, and in the first month of the fourth year of Xiao Jian (460 AD), Jia Zishuo (chu yi), Tuoba Mao ordered a general amnesty and changed the era name to Peace. The name of the year was Peace, but the Northern Wei Did Not Stop Its Military Operations.
In February of that year, Tuoba Liang, a Northern Wei general and king of Le'an, was ordered to fight against the rebellious Hu people in Hexi. In March, Northern Wei began to fight Again liu Song's idea, and the army invaded Northern Yinping, and as a result, as in the previous Battle of Qingzhou, Liu Song Zhu Ti Taishou Yang Guizi led an army to meet it, and Northern Wei suffered a major defeat. The rebels were wiped out, and in the face of Liu Song, they repeatedly could not eat good fruit, but the Northern Wei did not stop their military operations, and this time they targeted their neighbor, Tuguhun.
Don't look at the Tuguhun territory located in the area of present-day Qinghai and Gansu, but he is also a genuine Xianbei regime. Tuguhun's founder, Murong Tuguhun, was murong Shugui's eldest son, and Murong Shugui's concubine was Murong Shu, the founder of Former Yan. Due to murong Xi's poor relations with Murong Tuguhun, Tuguhun led his people to move west to Longshang, and then after several generations of efforts, established a political power, and Tuguhun's grandson Ye Yan even named his grandfather Tuguhun as his clan name. Tuguhun then wandered among the forces of Western Qin and Southern Liang, but all of them ensured their independence.
Originally, northern Wei and Tuguhun did not border each other, so the two sides did not have much intersection. But as the Northern Wei Dynasty launched a war to unify the north, the relationship between the two sides began to change. When Tuoba Tao attacked the State of Huxia, Murong Muxuan, the then Tuguhun Khan, was declared a vassal, captured Helianding, and sent him to Pingcheng. Tuoba Tao then made him a great general and king of Western Qin, but Mu Xuan was not satisfied with this, and constantly asked Tuoba Tao for more rewards, and his words were quite disrespectful. Tuoba Tao, of course, did not meet his demands, and the relationship between the two sides began to become inseparable. Tuguhun also submitted to Liu Song at the same time, and Liu Yilong made him the King of Longxi. After Mu Xuan's death, his younger brother Mu Liyan continued his policy of simultaneously submitting to the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
This made Northern Wei very unhappy, so Tuoba Tao twice sent troops to conquer Tuguhun. Tuguhun was naturally invincible, and Mu Liyan was so embarrassed that he could only lead the rest of his army west into Khotan, kill his king, and take control of his land. He also sent an emissary, Liu Yilong, saying that if Northern Wei attacked again and Tuguhun could not protect themselves, he asked Liu Yilong to place them in the Yuewei region. Fortunately, the Northern Wei finally withdrew its troops, and Mu Liyan escaped the disaster.
Interestingly, Muliyan and Tuoba Tao died in the same year, and Muliyan's nephew Shiyin succeeded him as Khan. After Shi Yin ascended the throne, he continued to adopt the strategy of befriending Liu Song and Northern Wei at the same time, while claiming subjection to both sides. However, in Tuguhun Country, Shi Yin was a different style, whether it was his residence or the carriage and horse he used, it could be compared with the emperors of the two countries. But this is not the most important, although Tuoba Tao twice ordered people to attack Tuguhun and let it suffer heavy losses, but at this time, Tuguhun's strength should not be underestimated, if it was really used by Liu Song, it was definitely a big trouble for Northern Wei.
Therefore, the Northern Wei dynasty began to discuss tuguhun again using troops, and Cao An, the Marquis of Dingyang, said: "Murong Shiyin is now guarding Bailan, and if our troops divide into two routes and attack from the left and right, they will definitely flee to Nanshan to hold on, and for more than ten days, they and their livestock are all short of food, then we can pacify them in one fell swoop." Tuoba Mao agreed with this very much, so on the afternoon of June of the first year of peace (the fourth day of the first month), he sent the general of Zhenxi, Tuoba Xincheng, the king of Yangping, and others to supervise the large armies of Tongwan and Gaoping from the south road, and the Southern Commandery Gong and Li Hui of Zhongshan, who commanded the various armies of Liangzhou, set out from the north road and attacked Tuguhun at the same time.
At the same time as the army set out, Tuoba Mao received another piece of good news, the leader of the rebellious Hu people in Hexi went to Chang'an to surrender himself, and Tuoba Mao sent emissaries to comfort and comfort him. On the afternoon of July (22nd), Tuoba Mao personally went to Hexi to inspect.
The large army attacking Tuguhun also progressed smoothly, all the way to Xiping, as Cao An expected, Shiyin did indeed flee to the South Mountain to guard, and in September, the Northern Wei army crossed the Yellow River south and pursued with victory. But at this critical moment, it is not known whether it was due to the plague or because of altitude sickness, a large number of soldiers in the Northern Wei army fell. The generals saw the situation and quickly discussed that Shi Yin was already far away, the military appearance had been revitalized, and continuing to pursue under the condition of fatigue of the soldiers was afraid that it would have little effect, and it was better to accept it when it was good. So the Northern Wei army retreated and captured more than 300,000 heads of various livestock.
Tuguhun once again escaped the disaster, and ironically, when the Northern Wei Dynasty fell in the future, Tuguhun still existed strongly.