Battle of Nüshui with Takekawa
Yan Kemin
During the Northern Wei Dynasty, Nüshui appeared many times in the Book of Wei, the History of the North and other historical books as the main battlefield of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the tribes in the north. The Book of Wei and taizu records that in the third year (388 AD) of the reign of Emperor Tuoba Ofe, emperor Daowu "drove the western expedition to the women's water, discussed Rubu, and broke it" from the winter of December to the spring and February of the following year. "Attack the tribes of Gaoche, the great break", "To the female water, to the neighbors, the great break". This was the first time that Tuoba Jue, the founding emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, launched a war of annexation aggression against the Xierubu and Lingtu neighbors of the Gaoche tribe in the Nüshui Valley, and the excuse for starting the war was that the Xierubu and the Neighboring Tribes of The Lingtu were "lip-to-mouth and did not serve as a minister", and the result of the war was to "relocate their tribal livestock and return as much as possible". In the second year of emperor Taiwu's reign (433 AD, that is, the year in which Wuchuan, Huaishuo and other northern military towns were established), from the winter of December to the spring and February of the following year, the car driver set off from the north of Yinshan Mountain, "second to the female water, the great feast of the Qunchen, and the class gifts were different", this northern tour was when the Northern Wei built the Northern Great Wall and set up six border defense towns, and Emperor Wei personally visited the border defense key areas to patrol the lucky trip. In the fourth year of Emperor Xianwen's reign (470 AD), "In the Northern Expedition, the generals met at the female water and destroyed the people." This war was the last decisive battle of the Northern Wei Dynasty against Rouran, known in history as the "Battle of Nüshui".
Rouran, the "Miao of Eastern Hu", arose in the desert at the same time as the Northern Wei established by the Xianbei Tuoba. However, Rouran was still in the stage of the development of slave society at the end of primitive society, and was a nomadic country specializing in plundering property and population. In 402 AD, the Ruoran noble community conquered the various departments of Gaoche, dominated the north of the desert, strong soldiers and Ma Sheng, and called himself QiuDoufa Khan. It also held a vast pastoral land from Yanqi in the west, Korea in the east, and the desert in the south, and gradually moved south, frequently attacking the northern territory of Northern Wei for many years, and even penetrating deep into the southern hinterland of the Northern Wei Yin Mountains. For example, in the fifth year of Tianxing (402 AD), when Emperor Tuoba Jue of Daowu was on an expedition against Yao Xing, he marched southward and broke through the northern Wei Yin Mountain defense line, "invading Samhepi (present-day Daihai, Liangcheng County), south to Jackal Mountain and Shanwu Beize (present-day Youyujing, Shanxi)". In the first year of emperor Taiwu's reign (424 CE), "In August, the creep led 60,000 horsemen into the clouds, killed and plundered the officials, and captured the Shengle Palace." The threat of Rouran to the Northern Wei was serious.
This consolidated the northern frontier, and the Northern Wei Dynasty adopted a policy of combining attack and defense against Rouran. In the eighth year of Taichang (423 AD), emperor Tuoba Si of the Ming Dynasty built the Great Wall in the north, extending for more than 2,000 miles, from Chicheng in the east to Wuyuan in the west. In the second year of Yanhe (433 AD), Emperor Taiwu set up military towns such as Wuchuan along the Great Wall to prevent Ruoran from invading. In the second year of ShenYi (429 AD), Emperor Taiwu personally led a large army in the Northern Expedition, and the soldiers were divided into two roads, "second to the south of the desert, and the heavy and light attack" was carried out. Rouran Mu Khan ascended to cover the Khan Da Tan "smelled the shock, burned the house, and went west", and the Northern Wei army won a great victory, and the Rouran army fell more than 300,000 people, more than 1 million horses, and millions of livestock. Emperor Taiwu then divided his troops into three northern expeditions to Rouran in the tenth year of the Taiping Zhenjun (449 AD), and the Khan Tuhe Zhen of Rouran was defeated and plundered by the Northern Wei Dynasty. Although Rouran was hit hard, his heart of southern invasion never changed. In the fourth year of peace of Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei (464 AD) and the fourth year of Emperor Xianwen's reign (470 AD), Rouran was given two major crimes by Luobu Zhen Khan Yucheng and killed and plundered the border people.
Emperor Xianwen of Northern Wei was determined to defeat Rouran and completely eliminate the northern threat. In September 470, the Northern Wei soldiers divided into four routes and launched a large-scale northern expedition. The army met on the shore of the female water, held a huge oath ceremony, and Emperor Xianwen called on the soldiers to work together with one heart, fight bravely to kill the enemy, and Jingbian Anbang. A decisive battle was then fought in the Nüshui River Valley, and the result of this battle was that "the people of the people rushed to the north, chased more than thirty miles to the north, beheaded 50,000 people, descended more than 10,000 people, and the equipment of the horses was incalculable." After this heavy blow, Rouran's national strength weakened, and he no longer dared to invade the Northern Wei border on a large scale, and the two countries entered a period of relative peace. In order to commemorate this decisive battle, Emperor Xianwen of northern Wei ordered Taichang Gao Yun to carve a stone jigong in the "Ode to the Northern Expedition" and ordered that the female water be renamed Wuchuan, which means "a river showing martial arts".
From this, the following two questions arise: Is the town of Wuchuan in the Northern Wei Dynasty named after "Changing female water to Wuchuan"? Is Nüshui in the territory of present-day Wuchuan County, Hohhot? The answer is no.
Regarding the female water diwang, the Book of Wei, the Biography of Gao Che, when describing Emperor Daowu's northern expedition to Gao Cheling's sudden neighboring department and reconciliation of Rubu, said: "Taizu pro-western expedition, crossing the weak Luoshui, and returning to the west to enjoy his country. To the female water, to the solution is like a tribe, to break it.". The location of the female water was in the west of the weak Luoshui, which was under the control of the high car at that time, and the rouran was in the south of the high car. Later, the Rouran Qiu Doufa Khan Society rose to the north of the desert, "invaded the high car, went deep into its land, and then merged all the departments", migrated weak Luoshui in the north, established a military law, and established the Rouran Khanate in the Nüshui River Basin, which is the heart of Rouran. In the Historical Atlas of China edited by Mr. ChatanQijun, the Weak Luoshui is the Tula River, a tributary of the Orkhon River in present-day Mongolia, which flows through Ulaanbaatar, and the Female Water and the Rouran Khanate are still west of the Tula River, near the present-day Upper Orkhon River.
Due to the difference in national strength and the nature of the war, the strategies and tactics of the two countries are also very different, and Rouran adopts the principle of "the wind and the birds go, and the birds come and go", and the mobility is flexible. While the Northern Wei Dynasty adopted the tactics of advancing in several ways, driving straight in, chasing after everything, and ploughing the caves. Several large-scale counterattacks by the Northern Wei Dynasty against Ruoran were carried out in the heart of the Ruoran state. When describing the Wei army's march, the Book of Wei uses the words "YuanliShui to the west", "passing through the Han General Dou Xian's old fortress", "second to the Rabbit Garden Water", "Crossing yanran Mountain in the north", "driving to Luhun Valley", "chasing to the Yinggen River" and so on. These place names were all around the Court of the Nüshui and Rouran Khanates, and went south to the Northern Wei capital of Pingcheng (present-day Datong, Shanxi) for more than 3,000 miles. The Book of Wei, The Biography of Worms, after recounting the Battle of Nüshui, writes: "There are nine days in the tenth month, more than 6,000 miles round trip", clearly pointing out that this northern expedition, the large army set off from Pingcheng, after nineteen days, the round trip was more than 6,000 miles. The distance from Datong to Ulaanbaatarsi is about three thousand miles, and the record in the Book of Wei is credible. At that time, Wuchuan Town was still south of the Great Wall of Northern Wei and belonged to Northern Wei's own territory, so how could it be possible to fight against the erratic Rouran in its own territory? Therefore, after the Battle of Wuchuan in The Town of Wuchuan in northern Wei and the battle of Nüshui, the change of female water to Wuchuan of Wuchuan is not comparable, and the Wuchuan is not this Wuchuan. Moreover, Wuchuan Town was built in the second year of Emperor Taiwu Yanhe (433 AD), and the female water reform of Wuchuan occurred in the fourth year of Emperor Xianwen's reign (470 AD), and the town was named after the former, and the female water was renamed after the latter, how could the former be named after the latter!
During the Northern Wei Dynasty, in addition to the above two Wuchuan, there were two other Wuchuan in the historical records, which are analyzed here: one is Wuchuan County (see "Wei Shu, TopographicAl History") in Jingzhou Beiwei County, which is close to the Yangtze River, and is far away from the town of Wuchuan, which is located outside the Great Wall, and is not easy to confuse with each other; one is the name of the water, "In February of the second year of Tianxing (399 AD), "with the high car obtained, the deer garden, the south is Taiyin, the north is from the Great Wall, the east is Baideng, the west mountain of the genus, the Guanglun is tens of miles, and the canal is dug to lead the Wuchuan water into the garden. It is divided into three ditches and diverts the inside and outside of Miyagi Castle. "This Takekawa is near the capital city of Heisei Castle, when it is the Wuzhou River at the foot of the Wuzhou Mountains. "Water Through the Notes" Yun, Wuzhou Chuanshui, "water out of (Pingcheng) County southwest of the mountain", through the Yungang Grottoes, "Chuanshui flows southeast out of the mountain", "from the mountain mouth branch canal east in and out of the garden, irrigation of the garden pond." The garden has the Luoyang Hall, and the north of the hall has the Palace Hall." The So-called Wuchuan Water of the Book of Wei that "diverts the water inside and outside miyagi castle" is the Wuzhou Chuanshuiye of the "East Entrance and Exit Garden from the Yamaguchi Branch Canal" in the "Notes on the Water Classics". The names of the above four Wuchuan all appeared in the Northern Wei Dynasty, which originally belonged to the same name in different places, and those who govern history must not fail to notice it.