Xianbei Murong - Character Zhi - Eagle Yang Tiger Looked at Murong Hao

Poetry:

The eagle man has passed away for a long time, and the new eagle is still fat.

The fat rabbit disappeared without a trace for a while, and the goshawk came for the king hundred beasts.

The White Mountain Black Water Jackal is exhausted, and the Red Sun Sky is dominating.

Rise up to ninety thousand miles, and die and go back to your dreams.

I. Succession and civil unrest: The eagle man has passed away for a long time, and the new eagle is in charge of the rabbit

In 333 AD, the southern part of China was Sima Yanxian, the Emperor of Jincheng, and the eighth year, and the northern part of China was the fourth year of Later Zhao Gaozu Shi Le Jianping. The Xianbei chief of Liaodong Province, Murong Hui (慕容廆卒), was succeeded by his son Murong Hui (慕容皝). Murong Hao (297–348), Murong Xi's third son (嫡長子), founder of the Former Yan Empire during the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms period (known as the King of Yan, his son Murong Juan as emperor), Book of Jin. Murong Hao's Records record that Murong Hao had longyan teeth and was seven feet eight inches long. He is a man of many powers, a scholar of scriptures, and a good at astronomy. Judging from Murong Hao's later deeds, the description is also quite pertinent.

Murong Xi's political legacies to Murong Hui were:

1. The strategic concept of "unifying the northeast and looking at the central plains". This has been described in detail when writing Murong Xi, and will not be repeated.

2. Empty cheques of the Eastern Jin Dynasty court: Zhenjun Grand General, Pingzhou Assassin History, Dadan Yu, Liaodong Gong, holding festivals and undertaking the sealing of worship. Of all the estates, this bad check is the most valuable. Before Murong Juan became emperor in 352, Murong Shi had been pulling this banner. It was precisely because of the existence of this banner that the rulers of the Central Plains (successively Liu Zhao of the Xiongnu, Shi Zhao of the Xiongnu, and Ran Wei of the Han nationality) were always in a situation of being attacked from the belly (there was the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south, and the Murong clan in the north was a vassal of the Eastern Jin Dynasty). In this way, the dream of restoration of the Eastern Jin Dynasty would not be shattered, the north and south of China would fall into a scuffle at any time, and Murong Shi might take advantage of the chaos to achieve hegemony.

3. The most powerful military strength in the Northeast Zhuhu. Although Murong Xi failed to unify the northeast, the northeastern Zhuhu Yuwen Xianbei, Duanbu Xianbei, and Goguryeo were all defeated by Murong Xianbei in local military frictions, which meant that Murong Shi was the priority target of the central plains rulers and the Eastern Jin Dynasty at that time, and if handled properly, it could reap the benefits from both Later Zhao and Eastern Jin.

4. A relatively mature political system. As early as before the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty (before 316), Murong Xi established counties and counties, and his wars were also "established as counties and returned". Establishing a county is to develop agriculture, and the farmer is also the foundation of the country. Establishing counties and counties and developing agriculture means hiding grain from the people and hiding soldiers from the people, and it is not a problem to start a war with grain, grass, and soldiers. Moreover, the common people were stable, and there were more people reading, so Murong Xi "elected the talents and entrusted them with the government."

Speaking of this, I can't help but praise Murong Xi again, because Murong Xi invented a political system called "Li County to Unify the People", when the Central Plains were in chaos and there were many refugees in the Liaodong area. The refugee problem is a thorny issue, not only to eat, but also to wear, but also to smash and rob, disrupt the law and order, and to this day, European countries are still deeply troubled by the refugee problem. However, Murong Xi cleverly turned the disadvantages into benefits, and he "established a county with a tongliu person, a Jizhou person as Jiyang County, a Yuzhou person as Chengzhou County, and a prefecture as a Tangguo County." As a result, the original refugees have changed from displaced people to residents (or people), from those who want food to producers (or taxpayers), from saboteurs to law and order defenders. At about the same time, The Han Chinese Wang Dao began to practice the "overseas Chinese sending method" in Jiangdong to solve the problem of the northern shi clan having nowhere to stand after "crossing the south with a crown". It can be seen that our previous evaluation of Murong Liao is worthy of the name. You can first go online Baidu to see what kind of origin, what level of education, what deeds, and what historical status. Then, The image of Murong Li will be instantly tall in your heart, and the concept of Murong Liu of the Hu people is not behind the Han politician Wang Dao. You can also search for "King and Horse, Share the World" to understand Wang Dao.

What Murong Yu left for his son was indeed a good hand. For Murong Hao, the "new eagle", it can be said that "the new eagle first released the rabbit is fat", the eagle is an eagle, and the prey is fat and ready-made. However, civil unrest delayed Murong Shi's great cause of unifying the northeast. Murong Xi was an excellent "eagle trainer (eagle man)". His sons were all excellent, each of them had the ambition of the eagle to strike the long sky, and the talent of the eagle to strike thunder, among the sons of the founding monarchs of various dynasties throughout the ages, Murong Xi's sons were the best.

Let's carefully study the second generation of the founding monarchs of successive dynasties and make judgments. These people can be roughly divided into two categories, one is the straw bale type, Liu Bang's son Liu Ying, the Han hui emperor, died of resignation; Sima Yan's son Sima Zheng, the son of Sima Yan, that is, the one who said why the refugees did not eat meat porridge, can be called mentally handicapped; Qin II Hu Hai, even pointing to the deer as a horse, was powerless to pierce.... Wait a minute. The other type is that the blue is even better than the blue type, such as Liu Heng, the Emperor of Han Wen, Li Shimin of tang, Zhu Di of Ming Chengzu, and so on. Why is the former category weak, lack of experience, Qin II Hu Hai was born in the imperial family, needless to say; Jin Hui Emperor Sima Zheng was born in the prince's family, there is no need to say; then The Han Hui Emperor Liu Ying, it is said that when he was born, Liu Bang was nothing, but Liu Bang fought too fast, and liu Bang was called emperor before Liu Ying grew up, and he was made a prince early, grew up in the deep palace, and knew nothing about the affairs of the world; his younger brother Liu Heng, the Emperor of Han, was different, he was named acting king early, he left the capital and became a prince of one side, he went to the horse to manage the army, and he was in charge of the people. Moreover, Daidi is a bitter cold place, and Liu Heng underwent exercise at a young age. Zhu Di was similar to Liu Heng, and at a young age, he took the throne of Beijing, became the King of Yan, fought for the Ming Dynasty, and dealt with the Mongols, he was the opposite, Zhu Yunjiao was really powerless. Li Shimin is different from these two, Li Shimin was an adult when Li Yuan raised his army, he participated in the foundation process of the Tang Dynasty throughout the process, and his father relied heavily on him to sit in the Jiangshan Mountains, so he was not a typical second generation, he had the quality of a founding monarch.

Murong Xi's sons belonged to the entrepreneurial participation type, so they leapt and jumped, and they were not convinced by each other. Murong Hao was also deeply jealous of his brothers. After Murong Hao ascended the throne, the other brothers were not convinced, and the higher the ability, the more unconvinced; Murong Hao also began to suppress his brothers because of jealousy, the stronger the ability, the deeper the oppression suffered. As a result, the best Murong Han, Murong Ren, and Murong Zhao took the lead in attacking. First Murong Han fled duanbu, and then Murong Ren divided the side. Similar things would have happened many times in the later history of the Murong family, otherwise their end would not have been like this. Why such a thing happened repeatedly needed to be explored in depth, and perhaps, when Murong Chui was studied, he could give everyone a perfect answer.

Speaking of murong's internal strife after Murong Xi's death, we can analyze it from the perspective of the system. We may wish to first compare the Xianbei Murong clan with the Manchurian Ai Xinjue Luo clan. All of them were ethnic minority regimes, all of them started in the northeast, they all took advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains to participate in the struggle for the right to rule the whole country, and there was also a heroic founding monarch (Murong Xi and Nurhaci). Nurhaci's sons are also extraordinary, Chu Ying, Daishan, Mang Gultai, Huang Taiji, Azig, Dolgun, Duoduo, all of which have imperial talents; even Nurhaci's grandsons are also great talents, Chu Ying's son Dudu, Daishan's sons Yuetuo, Sakhalin, Mandahai, Huang Taiji's sons Hauge, Shuo Sai... So, why did the Manchu Qing Dynasty not have civil unrest after the change of the second and third generations of the throne (Khan's throne)? Because neither Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty nor emperor Fu Lin (Shunzhi) of the Qing Dynasty was designated by the previous generation, but was collectively elected by the clan, and in the current parlance, it was decided by a meeting. This is the characteristic of ethnic minority regimes, such as the Mongolian Kulitai Assembly, which is used to discuss major matters and make decisions and elect leaders, with the nature of a modern parliament, in 1227 Genghis Khan died, Wokoutai did not immediately succeed to the throne, but from Tuolei to oversee the state until 1229, because it did not reach the next Kulitai Congress; the Four Great Heshuo Belle Deliberations and the Eight Banner Lords belle deliberations in the early Manchu Qing Dynasty were also such mechanisms. So, what is the root cause of this kind of polity? Because most of the minority regimes are "alliance of lords" regimes, they are generally led by the brothers and nephews of the khans, such as cadres, and these tribes are the people in peacetime and soldiers in wartime, which is the private property of their lords. Since it is private property, these lords are equivalent to shareholders in modern enterprises, and major shareholders have to arrange their own spokesmen on the board of directors and have voting rights. Thus a mechanism was formed, such as the Mongolian Kuritai Congress and the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Emperor Taiji's succession to the throne and Fu Lin's succession were all elected by the upper council, and since they were elected at the meeting, everyone was not able to say anything; and there were gains and losses, and those who lost their arms with the highest position also got the benefit of retreating to the second, for example, after Shunzhi succeeded to the throne, Dorgon got the position of regent, and although Haug did not ascend to the throne, he saw that the new emperor was his own brother, and he would not turn back again.

On the other hand, Murong Xianbei undoubtedly had this kind of mechanism in their early days, but by the time of Murong Xi, it was obvious that this system had been abandoned and the Han system had been adopted, and the "lords" had lost their voice in decision-making at the highest level, and those who had the right to speak had become representatives of the intellectuals of the landlord class. Murong Han, Murong Ren, and others did not receive the throne, nor did they receive any promises or substantial benefits, so they turned against them.

Murong Han, fearing murong hao's harm, defected to the Duan clan, and Murong Zhao conspired with Murong Ren to raise an army against Murong Hao, but Murong Hao discovered it and killed Murong Zhao. Murong Ren led his people to divide one side, and for a long time, both Murong Ren and Murong Hao claimed to be Murong Xi's legitimate heirs, just like Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei around 1927, and both nationalist governments said they were inheriting the legacy of the former prime minister. All in all, after Murong Xi's death, his sons did not focus on how to hunt ready-made prey, but were busy competing for the throne.

Second, calm the chaos and claim the king: the fat rabbit has no trace for a while, and the goshawk is the king of the hundred beasts

Why do we repeatedly emphasize "fat rabbit". Because at the time of Murong Xi's death, among the Zhuhu in the northeast region, Murong Shi was in a strong position and militarily on the offensive, while Duanbu, Yuwenbu, and Goguryeo were on the defensive militarily, and Yuwenbu and Duanbu at this time were two fat rabbits for Murong Bu, and the eagle rabbit was easy. At this time, if the brothers were united and worked hard, then Murong Xi's legacy of unifying the northeast might be completed early.

Murong Han and Murong Ren's attack disrupted Murong Hao's plans. As a result, Murong Hao had to carry out the work at the same time as the outside and inside. But from another point of view, it was this kind of internal and external troubles that tempered Murong Hao's will, tempered Murong Hao's sons, and also made the entire Murong Xianbei tribal psychology more mature, and made Murong Xianbei complete the establishment of orthodoxy and ideological unification in advance. From this point of view, it can be said that "the fat rabbit has no trace for a while", because it is advantageous in the long run.

The dispute between Murong Hao and Murong Ke was plainly a "legitimate" dispute, because at that time Murong Ren had exhausted the land of Liaozuo (equivalent to half of Murong Bu's territory), and called himself the CheQi General, the Assassin of Pingzhou, and the Duke of Liaodong, which was the title given to Murong Xi by the Eastern Jin court, and it was also the title that Murong Hui passed on to Murong Hui. If the winner was Murong Ren, perhaps the article we are writing today should be called "Eagle Yang Tiger Looks at Murong Ren." Some people may have different opinions, because since the seat was personally handed over to Murong Hui by Murong Hui, then Murong Hao was orthodox, and how to fight for orthodoxy. We believe that from historical experience, the so-called "orthodoxy" is not necessarily the person (or the one) who inherited the throne at the beginning, but the person (or the group) who can lead the dynasty to become strong and continue wang zuo. Who is the orthodox zhu yunjiao and Zhu Di? Can even a few uncles who can't balance the world?

This kind of orthodoxy is also the only way for a tribe, a nation, and even a political party to develop. Since it is the only way, it is better to complete it early, because only a high degree of internal unity can be consistent with the outside. If a tribe, a nation, a political party does not establish orthodoxy at an early stage, then it will leave a curse, and sooner or later this evil will erupt, and if it breaks out when the cause is about to succeed, the result will be devastating. The controversy over orthodoxy is, to put it bluntly, the unity of thought, the so-called heaven has no two days, and the country has no two masters. Politics that has not completed ideological unification can easily become warlord politics, and warlord politics is characterized by division and integration, and the basis for determining division and integration is interests. The Kuomintang is warlord politics, the root of which lies in the illegitimate identity of Chiang Kai-shek, and the Confluence of Ninghan and Chiang Kai-shek has won, but the KMT is far from being unified. The Dispute between Wang and Jiang interrupted the Northern Expedition, and the Second Northern Expedition began after the confluence of Ning and Han, but the collapse of Tang Shengzhi and the mustard of Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren greatly reduced the strength of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and had to ally with Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan to form a new loose and compromise regime, laying the foundation for the Central Plains War. Premier Sun's two legitimate heirs, Wang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin, have been repeatedly crowned by various warlords, becoming tools against Chiang Kai-shek, and even being used by the Japanese.

Back to the point. Around 335 CE, Murong Hao followed the example of Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, who was "saving the great cause because of the ice of Tuotuo", and adopted the method of surprise attack, advancing in a lowly manner, capturing Murong Ren, and completing internal unification. Just imagine, if Murong Ren's rebellion occurred on Murong Juan's way to march into the Central Plains, what would be the outcome?

From the time of Murong Xi's death to the pacification of Murong Ren, Murong Hao was in a situation of internal and external troubles, and was attacked by enemies in his abdomen and back. If his enemies joined hands, Murong Hao would certainly be powerless to deal with it, because Murong Ren had taken half of his men, and Yuwen and Duan Bu had not been injured during Murong Hui's time. But history is that for five years (333-337), none of his opponents could join hands, and Murong Hao was allowed to wage frequent wars, and even more incredibly, when Murong Hao was fighting with Duanbu, neither Murong Ren nor Yuwen Bu attempted to attack Murong Hao's lair. What's going on?

Murong Hao, who was a man of great talent, knew that the most terrifying and likely thing during this period was the union of his opponents. So he adopted the following strategy:

1. Firmly believe that offense is the best defense, and frequently launch wars. During this period, Duanbu, Yuwenbu, and Murong Ren formed a siege against Murong Hao, and if they did not take the initiative to attack, even if the three departments did not launch a large-scale war, they could gradually shrink Murong Hao's territory by constantly devouring and encroaching. He was well aware of this, so he frequently launched wars, and in 334 and 335, Murong Hao took the initiative to provoke four wars: Feng Yi attacked Xianbei Mudi, Shu Yu attacked Karasuma Siluohou, and Personally conquered Liaodong and Feng Yi attacked Yuwen Yiyu. Frequent active provocations made the various departments dare not attack easily, and Murong Hao could appropriately expand his territory while ensuring his own territory, ensuring that sufficient strategic depth was left for future wars.

2. Control the scale of the war and avoid decisive battles. Although wars are frequent, they are not large in scale. In 334, after the conquest of Liaodong, two of Murong Ren's subordinates surrendered, and Murong Hao placed houbanshi in the three counties of Yang, Wuci, and Xile. In 335, He sent Feng Yi to attack YuwenBu Yiyu, and after the victory, Ban Shi. Neither time took advantage of the victory to extend the results. Once the results of the battle are blindly expanded, it is bound to fall into a decisive battle, the decisive battle is like a quagmire, it is easy to enter, it is difficult to exit, if Yuwen, Duanbu, and Murong Ren join forces, Murong Hao will be defeated; if one or one or two units jointly copy their back roads, Murong Hao will also find it difficult to return to his aid.

3. The partial division attacks on all sides, the main force is in the center of the preparation, the defense of the back road, and the accumulation of small victories into big victories. The main force does not easily move, and when a small-scale war is fought to a certain extent, the sudden increase in troops determines the victory or defeat, and the accumulation of small victories is a big victory, depleting the enemy's living strength, while avoiding the back road being copied. Enough troops can be set aside for reinforcements.

All in all, it is to confuse the enemy in a continuous small-scale war, lead the enemy's nose, and then look for fighters in the change, and finally win the surprise attack. Finally, the fighter came, and in 335, Murong Hao attacked Yuwen Yiyu, and the others thought that Murong Hao would stop this time, but they miscalculated. The reason why he chose to attack Yuwen Yiyu was that "the intention of the drunkard was not to drink", and Murong Hao's thinking at that time should be like this: 1. Yu Yu was another part of Yuwen's department (non-main force, or irregular army, or miscellaneous cards), attacking this tribe would not sting the nerves of others, and could get a lot of time to secretly transport troops. 2. The ministry was close to the sea route leading to Murong Ren's territory in order to reach the sea route by way and carry out surprise attacks. It was also Heavenly Help Murong Hao, who had never frozen in the sea, but it was frozen in that year, and the ship did not have to sit. Poor Murong Ren, he was captured in his sleep! A good trick to hide the sky and cross the sea! As soon as Murong Ren was destroyed, the situation was immediately reversed, and Yuwen Bu and Duan Bu were not Murong Bu's opponents even if they were combined.

So in 337, Murong Hao was proclaimed the King of Yan (former Yan in history). At this time, Murong Hao could only be said to be equal in terms of territory and military strength as his father Murong Hui. However, in terms of prestige and appeal, it far exceeded Murong Hui. Because he broke a big picture, a big picture of several strong enemy sieges, and a big picture that Murong Xi had never broken. This prestige, appeal, high unity, and high self-confidence made Murong Hao break through in the next process of unifying the northeast, and also made Murong Shi gradually have the hard strength and temperament to achieve great things. Therefore, the goshawk is the king, and the hundred beasts come and go.

Third, unify the northeast and the tiger to see the central plains: the white mountains and black water jackals are exhausted, and the red sun and the sky are hegemonic

Murong Hao's title of King of Yan was an epoch-making event. Murong Xi made Murong Xianbei's slave-made nomadic tribe initially have the characteristics of a feudal state, but did not establish a state, and when we write history, we can only call him the founder of the Former Yan Empire, and Murong Hui is the founder.

Zhu Yuanzhang's adviser Zhu Sheng once advised Zhu Yuanzhang to "build a high wall, accumulate grain widely, and slowly claim the title of king", because the gun shot the head bird, whoever called the king first died first, and who dared to call the emperor died faster. Such examples abound in history, Chen Sheng is one, Yuan Shu is one, and Ran Min during the Sixteen Kingdoms period is also one. But the beauty of history lies precisely in the absence of immutable laws. In some specific circumstances, it is wise to slowly call the king; in others, it is wise to call the king wise first. Zhu Yuanzhang was wise to slowly call himself king, and it was also wise for Murong Hao to be called king early.

Let's first analyze Murong Hao's motives for becoming king from the perspective of the internal environment: First, Murong Hao's prestige is unshakable internally, but this does not mean that the position of his sons and grandsons is also unshakable, in order to avoid civil unrest to the greatest extent possible on the road of Xu Tu's hegemony in the future, it is necessary to completely legitimize the Han-style father-son mechanism and abandon the Hu-style "the capable are the long" system. Therefore, it is necessary to claim the king and build a truly Han-style state. Second, only by establishing the state and proposing a program in a clear-cut manner can the hero Hao Jie of the world see a political future in Murong Shi and compete for results. Third, let the internal see the way out and build consensus. Murong Hao became king, and his men were promoted to the next rank. What is the clan for, for more people, more food. What did the literati do, in order to seal their wives and shadows, and to honor their ancestors. Judging from the internal environment at that time, Murong Hao's early reign as king could maximize the stimulation of internal favorable factors, which was wise.

From the perspective of the external environment, we will analyze the rationality and irrationality of Murong Hao's claim to the throne. Murong Hao's premature claim to the throne had two hidden dangers: the first was to sting the nerves of those who regarded themselves as orthodox, and the orthodoxy at this time was the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The second is the fear of prematurely exposing strength to unite opponents. After analyzing this, Murong Hao believed:

First, the king would not lose the support of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The number one enemy of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was the Qiren (Later Zhao) who occupied their country, and their first task was to find a partner to overthrow Later Zhao; Murong Hao's behavior did sting their nerves, but they had already been mentally prepared, because Murong Hao's father, Murong Hui, had already tried once, and at that time the Eastern Jin Dynasty did not fiercely oppose it, but chose to deal with it coldly, which showed that they were mentally prepared. Moreover, Murong Shi's heteronorditious ambitions and his suzerainty know that if they are not of our race, their hearts will be different, and the two sides are using the relationship, so it is still necessary to look at the substance, the name is not important; again, far away from thousands of mountains and rivers, the Eastern Jin Dynasty is indeed murong Hao.

Second, Later Zhao and the Eastern Jin Dynasty could never unite, they were thieves and lost their owners; the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Northeast Zhuhu could not be united, because the Eastern Jin Dynasty's goal of running the northeast was very clear, looking for an alliance to attack Later Zhao, this alliance was still a little stronger, and among the Northeast Zhuhu, of course, they would prefer to ally with Murong Shi. As for the alliance between the Hu in the northeast, Murong Hao was even more fearless, and their combined strength could not rival Murong Bu, and they were not afraid of their unity.

From the above two perspectives, there is no problem in claiming the title of king. The only thing they feared was the alliance between Later Zhao and the Northeastern Zhuhu, because Later Zhao's attitude toward the Northeast was also very clear, relieving themselves of worries about fighting with the Eastern Jin Dynasty, they did not want any of the Northeastern Zhuhu to be strong, and if Murong Bu became strong, they were bound to join forces with Duanbu and Yuwenbu to attack Murong Bu. Therefore, judging from the external environment at that time, Murong Hao's title of king had both certain favorable factors and certain challenges. Whether it was to maximize the internal advantages of the king, or to avoid risks to the maximum extent by slowing down the king, Murong Hao chose the former. Because of the absolute internal advantages and a certain degree of favorable external conditions, he had the confidence to meet the challenge and have the confidence to maneuver between Later Zhao and the Northeast Zhuhu.

It can be said that Murong Hao's title of king was by no means a name for himself, but a title of Wang Mingzhi. His next series of actions were all thought out on the day of his reign. What he needed to do was: first, to prevent the Yuwen clan and the Duan clan from forming an alliance with the Later Zhao clan; second, to prevent the Yuwen clan from forming an alliance with the Duan clan; third, to eliminate the Yuwen clan and the Duan clan under the premise of one and two; fourth, to eliminate Buyeo and Goguryeo on the basis of one, two, and three, and unify the northeast; fifth, to observe the situation in the Central Plains and wait for the opportunity to go south.

How to prevent Yuwen and Duan from forming an alliance with Later Zhao, the best way is to preemptively ally with Later Zhao themselves. An alliance with Later Zhao, even if the Yuwen clan and the Duan clan allied, were not afraid, because Hou Zhao was the most powerful country at that time.

Why was Hou Zhao able to ally with Murong Xianbei? For Later Zhao, as the ruler of the Central Plains, his strength was comparable to that of a small country such as Murong Bu, but the tree was a big move, and the pressure was also the greatest, with the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south, the Former Liang that submitted to the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the northwest, the uncertain factors in the southwest becoming Han, and the Murong clan's ally Tuoba Shi (Dai Guo) in the north. For Later Zhao, if he was worried about it, he attacked his weakness and destroyed the weak country adjacent to him first. Who's near? Who is weak? Duanbu bore the brunt of it.

At that time, the geographical location between the four was as follows: Duanbu occupied the area around present-day Qinhuangdao, Chengde, blocked between Later Zhao and Murong Shi; Murong Clan occupied the area around present-day Jinzhou- Yingkou, blocked between YuwenBu and Duanbu; Yuwenbu was further north in the area of present-day Fuxin- Chifeng. How to destroy Duanbu is clear at a glance: ally with Murong Xianbei.

Therefore, in 338 AD, Zhao and Yan jointly attacked Duan. How could Duan Bu withstand the attack of two powerful enemies, so the leader Duan Liao chose to surrender and Duan Bu was destroyed.

According to the established policy, once Duanbu was destroyed, Murong Hao should turn his head to clean up Yuwen, Goguryeo, and Buyeo. However, as we said earlier, Hou Zhao was afraid that Murong Shi would dominate the northeast and become his worries in fighting against the Eastern Jin Dynasty, so if Murong Hao immediately changed direction at this time, then Hou Zhao would immediately follow up, and the consequences would be unimaginable! Therefore, he decided to break zhao's wrist first! The reason why he dared to do this was because at that time, Later Zhao was also unstable internally, and the two major chiefs of the Qiang clan, Yao Yizhong (later generations established Later Qin) and Fu Hong (later generations established Former Qin), although they submitted to Later Zhao, were ultimately an alliance, and they were very dissatisfied with Shi Hu's brutality and could rebel at any time. Therefore, Shi Hu did not dare to invest too many troops to duel with Murong Hao. Of course, the purpose of this was to temporarily stop the pace of Later Zhao's expansion to the northeast, rather than really to compete, so the troops invested by both sides were very limited, which was Murong Hao's consistent practice, and he still wanted to surprise and win.

Although this battle was finally won by virtue of the surprise attack of his son Murong Ke, Murong Hao also really felt the feeling of breaking the ship! The opponent is really too strong, and we must remember the father's last instructions, and the hegemony must "Xu Tu", and we have to wait. Of course, the purpose was achieved, and Shi Hu temporarily stopped the pace of expansion to the northeast. Pay attention to this surprise attack on Murong Ke of Zhao, who was later known as the first military master of the Sixteen Kingdoms period, and at the same time had a good set of rules for governing the country. Regarding Murong Ke's life, we will write a separate article to introduce it later.

At that time, the situation was such that Later Zhao believed that Murong Huang had not done his best in the war against Duanbu, of course, this was just an excuse, so he waved his division to attack Yan, and at that time, many of Former Yan's prefectures and counties surrendered to Later Zhao, and Murong Hao's garrison was also surrounded by layers, so Murong Hao was also forced to fight. Of course, under the extremely unfavorable conditions at that time, according to common sense, he should talk about peace or break through. However, he chose to take the initiative to fight, which showed that Murong Huang was really a strange bold, which showed the difference in his thinking habits.

Originally, he wanted to take down the Yuwen clan with a single blow, but this war with Later Zhao made Murong Hao cautious, or first pick a soft persimmon to pinch it, the reason, or that sentence, worried about the outside and attack its weakness. So he took aim at Goguryeo, the dying Goguryeo who had been beaten by his father.

In 342, Murong Hao led Murong Han (brother), Murong Chui (son), and 55,000 troops to attack Goguryeo in two directions, and after a battle, easily destroyed the main force of Goguryeo, attacked the capital of Maru, sacked its capital, plundered 50,000 Goguryeo subjects into slavery, and also captured the mother and princess of Goguryeo king Gosyou, and excavated the body of the old king in Goguryeo's mausoleum as a threat, and Gauss was forced to redeem it with a large amount of wealth. After this battle, Goguryeo almost destroyed the country, and from then on it bowed to Murong Shi. In this campaign, we should pay attention to Murong Chui, who was also the son of Murong Emperor, the brother of Murong Juan and Murong Ke, and in the history of the Murong family, he was more legendary than his grandfather Murong Chui, his father Murong Hui, and his brother Murong Jue and Murong Ke. Of course, we will also write a separate article about his life.

The battle against Goguryeo was a major turning point in the military history of Murong Xianbei (in fact, from the day Murong Hao became king, we should call it Former Yan). They changed the previous method of surprise attack and adopted a large corps for the first time. The main reasons are: First, this battle must be ended quickly, because although Later Zhao was newly defeated, this kind of local war was insignificant to the powerful Later Zhao; second, the strength of Former Yan was no longer the same as in the past, and if it wanted to participate in the central plains to chase deer, it was necessary to use a large army to fight, and this battle could be regarded as a drill.

Next up is The Yuwen Department. In 344, Murong Hao, the King of Yan, led an army to attack YuwenBu. He took Murong Han (brother) as the vanguard, and ordered Murong Jun (brother), Murong Ke (子), and Murong Chui (子) to lead troops to advance in three directions. Yuwen Yidou returned to the night to lead the troops to meet the battle. Murong Hao sent an envoy to warn the forward Murong Han: "It is advisable to avoid the three armies of the three armies involved in night work and courage." Han thought that Yuwen had all the elite soldiers of the country, and if he lost the night, his country would not be destroyed. Therefore, the overseer fought with Shiye Gan, and with Murong Chui's army suddenly attacked from the flank, Waye Gan was killed, Yuwen's army was defeated, the Yan army took advantage of the victory to pursue, the capital of Keqi (zimengchuan, northwest of present-day Chaoyang, Liaoning), Yuwen Yidou fled in defeat and died in northern Mobei. Yuwen bu died.

The blade points to invincibility. In 346, Murong Hao sent Murong Juan and Murong Ke to attack Buyeo with 7,000 soldiers and horses, and Buyeo was destroyed. In this battle, we should pay attention to murong juan, who later inherited murong juan's throne, and we should write a separate introduction to this person.

From quelling civil unrest in 337 to conquering Yuwenbu in 346, Murong Hao spent ten years unifying the northeast. He stood on the eagle drying platform, white mountains and black water, and could see it all! Tiger leopard jackal, look up to the eagle king! During this period, Murong Hao was really a great show of eagle might!

At that time, the situation in the world was like this: south of the Huai River was the Eastern Jin Dynasty (Sima Shi of the Han Dynasty), and north of the Huai River was the Later Zhao (Shi Clan of the Qiren), which were the two largest regimes at that time, and the two regimes that were absolutely impossible to compromise, and how the other separatist regimes around them acted depended to a large extent on the changes in the relationship between the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Later Zhao, or on the changes within the two regimes. The southwestern region (mainly Sichuan) is the Chenghan (Li clan of the Hu clan), a regime that is peaceful, but not without ambition. The northwest region (Longxi) is the former Liang (Han Zhang clan), former Liang was established by the Western Jin Dynasty Liangzhou Assassin Shi Zhang Rail established the regime, do not look at the northwest is a barren land, but at that time the status is special, because after the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, some of the Shi clan followed the Eastern Jin regime to the south, known in history as "Yiguan Nandu", the rest most of them entered Longxi, the history called "Shi clan north", this regime is still ostensibly still subject to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, so as long as the Eastern Jin Dynasty still has the opportunity to restore the Central Plains, they will not easily unite with the minority regime. The north (around present-day Hohhot, Inner Mongolia) was the founding state of the Tuoba clan, the predecessor of the Northern Wei Dynasty that later unified the north. And our protagonist, Murong Hao, is dominating the northeast!

At this moment, the Eagle King Murong Hao stared at Zhongyuan with tiger-like eyes! He was looking forward to the sudden change of wind and clouds, and the Central Plains would resume the war! Before that, he did not focus only on conquest, because he was not a "military theorist", and the military theorist was doomed to defeat and achieve nothing. He also grasps politics, economy, and diplomacy! He was a military man, a politician, and even more a strategist!

He developed agriculture and once said, "The king takes Li Yuan as the country, and Li Yuan takes the valley as his life." Therefore, they set up land outside the capital and worked hard to persuade the people; at the same time, they went through the county to persuade the peasants to teach; they gave them to the peasants who had land and no cattle to cultivate cattle; and they lightly gave their small gifts and recuperated. He opened up the way of speech, and the wood of the Li Na Zhi Zhi collected public opinion. He attached great importance to education, and the legislature encouraged the children of the princes and ministers to study, and personally supervised the schools every month, personally presided over the examinations, and even gave lectures in person.

What is even more rare is that his diplomatic strategies are also very clever, such as marriage with the Tuoba clan. Since ancient times, if the Central Plains regime wants to go south, it must balance the northeast. If the ethnic minorities in the northeast want to go south, they must balance the north. The first is to realize the unity of the northeast and the true north and strike at the Central Plains from two directions; the second is to worry that the ethnic minorities in the north will seize the opportunity to move east and raid their old nests. Before the Jin Dynasty went south, the Yan clan destroyed the Liao state; the Manchu Qing first conquered the Mongols before entering the customs; even the Japanese devils understood this, and immediately after establishing the puppet Manchu regime, they began to plot against the Mongol princes. Speaking of which, we must also talk about the great Communist Party of China and the great Chairman Mao. After the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, while seizing the northeast and operating the northeast, it also had a strategy for the management of Inner Mongolia. In Eastern Mongolia, Ulanfu and in 1947 in Ulanhot established the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, so that the troops of the Kuomintang Northeast Group had only one way to escape by coastal road after the Liaoshen Campaign, and if they were allowed to retreat from the northeast to Eastern Mongolia and form two major heavy military groups with the Fu Zuoyi clique in north China, then the Pingjin problem would not be so easy to solve. In Simon, Nie Rongzhen, He Long, and Xu Xiangqian did not leave North China for the first three years of the most vigorous liberation war, and completed the division of the Pingjin Fu Zuoyi clique, the Shanxi Yan Xishan clique, and the Suiyuan DongQiwu clique on the Jinshan-Jinsui-Jinchaji line, and how fierce the Datong-Jining campaign was fought, that is, to open up and maintain this line, if Dong Qiwu could go south and east, and even Ningma and Qingma (the four horses in the northwest, Ma Bufang, Ma Buqing, Ma Hongkui, and Ma Hongbin) could advance eastward, then, The Pingjin problem is still difficult to solve. In line with so many ancient military personnel, Murong Hao was a genius.

In short, everything was ready. Between the white mountains and the black water, there are no more enemies of his; under the red sun and the sky, it is his battlefield. But the Mandate of Heaven was difficult to violate, and in 348 AD, Murong Hao died! Just as his father Murong Hui did not see the unification of the Northeast, Murong Hao did not see former Yan's establishment of the Central Plains!

How many sons Murong Hao actually had, we don't know. Those who have left a deep mark on history are Murong Juan, Murong Ke, Murong Chui, and Murong De, among whom Murong Juan is the most outstanding. After Murong Hao's death, Murong Juan succeeded to the Yan throne.

Fourth, the afterword: soaring up to ninety thousand miles, dying and dying big dreams

In the year of Murong Xi's death, another important figure also died, that person was Shi Le (羯族), the founder of the Later Zhao regime that ruled the Central Plains at that time. Shi Le's nephew Shi Hu became the de facto ruler of Later Zhao, and the most tyrannical tyrant in Chinese history appeared.

The year after Murong Hao's death, Shi Hu also died. In the hands of Shi Hu, the tyranny carried out by the Qi people in the Central Plains has reached an insurmountable point, and the reason why there is no great chaos in the world is entirely because Shi Hu, a tyrant of the ages, has suppressed it with the tyranny of reaching the peak. As soon as Shi Hu died, the Shi clan immediately went into civil strife, and the Central Plains immediately went into chaos. The Central Plains were in turmoil, and the opportunity that Murong Shi had waited for twenty years had finally arrived.

In 350, Murong Juan marched south. In 352, Murong Juan proclaimed himself emperor, as the ancestor of Former Yan Liezu. Murong Shi became the most powerful regime in China. It can be said that it has soared up to ninety thousand miles. This history will be described in detail in the article "Murong Juan of the Dragon Line".

In 360, Murong Huan died and Murong Wei took the throne. In the early period of Murong Wei, Murong Ke assisted The Imperial Gang and Murong Chui led troops to conquest, and there was great hope of unifying the Central Plains. But in 367, Murong Ke died. Murong Jue (慕容廆子) was in power, but Murong Chui was jealous and defected. At this point, The Death Passed Away, and Former Yan declined sharply.

In 370 AD, Former Yan was destroyed by Former Qin, and the first big dream of Murong Xianbei's unification of the world was blown away! This history will be described in detail in the article "Kang Long Has Remorse for Murong Wei".

But the legend of the Xianbei Murong clan is far from over, because Murong Chui is still alive! Murong Chui's deeds will be described in detail in the article "No Tai Reincarnation of Murong Chui".