In the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the people of all ethnic groups revolted one after another, and the upper echelons of various ethnic minorities also took the opportunity to raise troops and establish a separatist regime. From 304 AD, when Liu Yuan became king, there were Former Zhao, Northern Liang, and Xia established by the Xiongnu, Former Yan, Later Yan, Western Qin, Southern Liang, and Southern Yan established by the Xianbei People, Later Zhao established by the Qiang People, Former Qin and Later Liang established by the Qiang People, And Former Liang, Western Liang, and Northern Yan established by the Han People. These 15 northern states, together with the Chenghan state established by the BaQi in the southwestern Shu region, are known in history as the "Sixteen Kingdoms". There are also predecessor states of Ran Wei, Western Yan and Northern Wei, which are generally not included in the Sixteen Kingdoms. During this period, the Former Qin of the Qi clan once unified the north. In 383, the Former Qin emperor Jian Jian attacked the Eastern Jin Dynasty and suffered a crushing defeat at Shuishui, and the north was divided again. In 386, the Xianbei tuoba (pronounced guī) established the Northern Wei Dynasty. In 439, the Northern Wei Emperor Tuoba Tao reunified the Yellow River Valley, and the Sixteen Kingdoms period came to an end. In this short period of more than 130 years, 86 people claimed the title of emperor, and on average, a new emperor was produced in less than two years. So, what about their end?
1. Li Te and Li Liu brothers who are struggling to start a business
As the saying goes: "The world is in chaos before it is chaotic." "In the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and long before liu yuan of the Xiongnu clan raised an army, the Li brothers of the Baqi tribe had already rebelled against the Jin and established a divided regime. It is only because it is in a remote place in Bashu, which has little impact on the overall situation.
Litt (?) ~303)
The Baqi are also known as the "cóng people". Li Te, a sage whose ancestors originally lived in the Tangqu area of Bashi County (present-day northeast of Qu County, Sichuan), moved to Hanzhong at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty when Zhang Lu was promoting the Wudou Rice Road in Hanzhong. During Cao Cao's reign, Li Te's grandfather Li Hu (李虎) moved to Luoyang (略阳, in modern Jingning, Gansu) because of his name. Li Te's father, Li Mu, gave birth to five brothers, Li Fu, Li Te, Li Xiáng, Li Liu, and Li Jun, all of whom were "sharp and martial" ("Huayang Guozhi Li Texiong Period ShouShizhi"). In the last year of Emperor Yuankang of the Jin Dynasty, due to years of military chaos, the Li Te brothers flowed into shuzhong with tens of thousands of starving families in the Qinyong region. When passing through the Sword Pavilion, Li Te looked left and right, and sighed: "Liu Chan occupies such a dangerous terrain, and even surrenders himself, is not he a mediocre talent!" The fellow displaced people's leaders Yan Shi and Zhao Su followed with admiration, while secretly admiring Li Te's ambitions, which were indeed extraordinary. In fact, in the chaotic world, there are many people with "ambitions" like Li Te, and Yizhou Thorn Shi Zhao Yu (pronounced xīn) is one of them. Zhao Liao took a fancy to the talents of the Li Te brothers and took them under the account. At this time, the Jin court recruited Zhao Liao back to Luoyang to take up the position of "Great Changqiu", that is, the head of the Empress Palace, and ordered Shi Gengteng of Chengdu to take over as the Assassin of Yizhou. At that time, Empress Jia Nanfeng had just been killed, and Zhao Liao was a relative of Jia Nanfeng, and after receiving the order to requisition, one was afraid in his heart and did not dare to return to Beijing; the other was that seeing that the Jin court had declined and was planning to divide the Shu land, how could he easily leave and take up any "great changqiu" who had no power? Therefore, Zhao Liao opened a warehouse to help the displaced people to buy people's hearts, and naturally treated the Li Te brothers more preferentially.
Li Liu (248–303)
In the first year of Yongkang (300 AD), Zhao Liao killed Geng Teng and claimed to be the Governor of Dadu, the Great General, and the Pastor of Yizhou, and had in fact betrayed the Western Jin Dynasty. Fearing a rebellion by the Jin court, Zhao appointed Li Yu as the general of Weikou and led an army to cut off northern provinces in order to prevent the Jin army from entering Sichuan. Li Yu was known as a "liang general of the Eastern Qiang Dynasty" and had considerable military ability, and Zhao Yu looked at him as "solemn in his troops", fearing that he would be difficult to control in the future, and his jealousy suddenly arose; his confidants Du Shu and Zhang Yue took the opportunity to say: "If you are not of my race, your heart will be different, how can you hand over military power to a person of Qi?" Just at this moment, Li Yu, who wanted to find out Zhao Liao's intentions, came to persuade him: "When the Ming Gong responded to the heavens, he was in accordance with the hearts of the people, and he could completely be like the King of Shang Tang and the King of Zhou Wu, who could pacify the world and change the dynasty, and what did he gain in the land of Sichuan and Shu!" Isn't this Zhao Liao's highest ideal and ultimate goal? However, at this moment, he posed as a righteous gentleman and angrily rebuked Li Yu: "Is this what a human subject should say?" "Immediately, on the charge of great rebellion, he killed Li Ku "and more than thirty of his clan sons and nephews" (Jin Shu Li Te Zai). The Li Te brothers were not in Chengdu, and Zhao Liu, worried that they would avenge Li Li, sent someone to appease them, saying: "Li Li said something that should not be said, and it should be executed, and it has nothing to do with your brothers." "On the one hand, the Li Te brothers were appointed as overseers, and on the other hand, they sent their subordinates Fei Yuan and others to lead more than 10,000 people to cut off the northern province." Brothers are not related"? Then why did you kill more than thirty of Li Yu's clan sons and nephews? Is it so easy for the Little Brothers to be deceived? Just as Fei Yuan and the others arrived at Mianzhu (present-day Deyang, Sichuan), Li Te led more than 7,000 people to launch a surprise attack at night. Fei Yuan's army was suddenly in disarray, and Li Te took advantage of the situation to set fire, and Fei Yuan's army suffered nine out of ten casualties. Li Te took advantage of the victory to attack Chengdu. In Chengdu, another of Zhao's confidants, Xu Ti (pronounced yǎn), requested to serve as the overseer of Badong, but Du Shu and Zhang Yue firmly disagreed. Xu Yi killed Du and Zhang in a fit of rage, but he was killed by Du and Zhang's attendants. Zhao Liao was so vicious inside, what strength did he have to resist foreign enemies? Therefore, Li Te's army has not yet arrived, and his civilian and military subordinates have abandoned the city and fled. Zhao, his wife and children fled by boat to Guangdu (廣都, in present-day Shuangliu, Sichuan), where they were killed by his men. After Li Te entered Chengdu, while announcing Zhao Liao's guilt, he unceremoniously plundered the army.
Soon, the Jin court sent the Pingxi general Luo Shang to assassinate Shi shi of Yizhou, and asked him to lead an army into Shu with Guanghan Taishou XinRan and others.
Luo Xian (218–270)
Li Te knew that he did not have the strength to compete with the Jin court at this moment, so he went with his younger brother Li Jun to greet him and offered the treasure. Luo Shang was overjoyed and appointed Li Jun as the Governor of Riding. Li Te also sent Li Liu to prepare cattle wine in Mianzhu to reward the Jin army. Not long after, the imperial court ordered the displaced people in Shu to still return to Qin, Yong and other places. It just so happened that Li Te's brother Li Fu stayed in his hometown at first, and at this time he had just entered Shu and said to Li Te: "The Central Plains are in chaos, how can we go back?" Li Te thought it was reasonable, and subjectively he had the intention of xiongba and Shu. Objectively, it also provided the possibility for his subjective intentions: because Li Had the merit of defeating Zhao, the Jin court named him the general of Xuanwei and the Marquis of Changle Township; li liu was made the general of Fenwei and the marquis of Wuyang; and the rest of the meritorious soldiers naturally had rewards. However, that Xin Ran wanted to take the credit for the defeat of Zhao Liao for himself, so he secretly shelved the appointment of the imperial court, and you think, can the Li Te brothers and their displaced people not complain? As for Luo Shang, he urged the displaced people to leave quickly and leave in July to return to their hometowns. These displaced people are scattered all over sichuan, working short-term jobs for the locals to eat, they all hope to settle the wages after the autumn harvest and then go back, and when this green and yellow is not received, the rainy season is coming soon, they have no road fees, and the other is who wants to trek in the Shu Road that is "difficult to go to the blue sky" in the rainy season? Therefore, when persecuted by state and county officials, everyone was sad and complained. Xin Ran also suggested to Luo Shang that the leaders of the displaced people had robbed too many things when they attacked Zhao Liao, and that checkpoints should be set up on the way to the repatriation, and strictly searched, so that they could not take their belongings away. Luo Shang felt justified, so he set up checkpoints in Zitong and other places to search for money and property carried by displaced people. The greedy and cruel Xin Ran had even prepared to kill the leaders of the displaced people in order to seize their gold and silver treasures. In this case, because the Li Te brothers repeatedly asked Luo Shang and others for a grace period, the displaced people were very grateful to them, and regarded the Li Te brothers as their own dependence, and they all went to them for help. Li Te set up a large camp in Mianzhu to shelter displaced people from all over the country, and sent people directly to Xin Ran to ask for a grace period. Xin Ran was furious and ordered notices to be posted in the streets and alleys to arrest the Li Te brothers. However, Li Te sent someone to tear down the notice and change it to read, "Those who can cut off yan shi, Zhao Su, and other leaders of the displaced people in the six counties of Luoyang and Tianshui will be rewarded with a hundred horses." As a result, the displaced people are more afraid, and more and more people are turning to the Lee brothers. In less than a month, Li Te had taken in more than 20,000 people, and Li Liu had also taken in thousands.
(The Emperor and His Concubines, Series No. 139, "The Emperor and His Descendants"