From May to November in the tenth year (395), Prince Murong Bao of Houyan led 80,000 Houyan troops to attack the Northern Wei Dynasty. Tuoba GUI, the Daowu Emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, adopted the strategy of "the enemy advances and we retreat, luring the enemy into the depth, delaying without fighting", crossing the Yellow River in the south and confronting the army of Houyan across the river. After a long journey, the Yan army could not make a quick decision. In addition, the weather is getting colder and colder. He mistakenly believed the news of Mu Rongchui's death and decided to withdraw. The 20,000 Northern Wei army led by Tuoba GUI was defeated in the north of Shenhe River. This battle accelerated the demise of Houyan, and laid the foundation for the Northern Wei Dynasty to unify northern China.
The process of the battle of Shen Hebei
In 384, Mu Rongchui restored the state of Yan, making its capital Zhongshan (now Dingzhou, Hebei Province). The year of its capital was Yanyuan, which was called Houyan in history. Deng nian (386), Mu Rongchui proclaimed himself emperor; Tuoba GUI, the grandson of Tuoba GUI, the acting king, made his capital Lesheng (now Helinger, Inner Mongolia) and changed his country name to Wei, which was called Northern Wei in history. In order to dominate the north, the two countries killed each other. The battle between Wei Yan and Hebei (now northeast of Liangcheng, Inner Mongolia) took place under such circumstances.
In May 395, Mu Rongchui wanted to conquer the Northern Wei Dynasty by force, so he sent Prince Murong Bao, Wang Murong Nong of western Liaoning and Prince Murong Lin of Zhao to attack the Northern Wei Dynasty from Wuyuan (now Baotou, Inner Mongolia) on a large scale, and sent Wang Murong De and Murong Shao with 18,000 troops and cavalry as successors.
Before going to war, Mu Rongchui, Shi San's regular servant, remonstrated with Gao Hu, saying, "The Northern Wei Dynasty and our Yan State are old friends. How can you suddenly mobilize troops to attack them? Besides, Tuoba GUI is calm and brave, full of strategy, and should not be underestimated. Prince Murong Baohuang is young, determined and full of momentum, but if he is given the command to attack the Northern Wei Dynasty, the final result will not be what we imagined, but it will damage the prestige of the Crown Prince and ruin the event at the same time! " Gao Hu's words were also fierce, and Mu Rongchui was very angry. Gao Hu was immediately dismissed from his post.
At the same time, before the arrival of the Yan army, the Northern Wei Dynasty convened a group of giants to discuss countermeasures and attached importance to the opinions of ministers. Zhang Zhou, who has a long history, suggested that Hou Yan's victory in the two battles of sliding platform and eldest son was carried away. This time, mobilizing the manpower and material resources of the whole country to attack us is to despise us. We should show our fatigue and weakness so as to make them more arrogant and we can conquer them.
According to Zhang Zhou's plan, Tuoba GUI ordered the transfer of livestock and property of various tribes, retreated from the capital city of Lesheng, crossed the Yellow River to the west, and fled to a place more than 1,000 miles west of the Yellow River. Yan Jun marched, but met no resistance from Wei Jun along the way. They successfully marched into Wuyuan, collected more than 30,000 households from other tribes in the Northern Wei Dynasty, harvested more than one million welcome grains, established the Black City there, and then led troops to the Yellow River, built ships and prepared to cross the river. Tuoba GUI sent Yuji Ma Xuqian to ask for help from Hou Qin.
In August, Tuoba GUI reorganized his army on the south bank of the Yellow River. In September, drive the army to the Yellow River. Murong Bao adjusted his army and prepared to cross the river to fight the Northern Wei Dynasty. Suddenly, the wind was very strong, and dozens of their warships were moored on the south bank of the Yellow River. More than 300 heavily armed soldiers on board were all captured by Wei Jun, and Wei Jun released them all and sent them back.
When Murong Bao set out from Zhongshan, Mu Rongchui was already ill. After arriving in Wuyuan, Tuoba GUI sent someone from Zhongshan to wait for you on the road, and the messengers of Houyan passed by and arrested them one by one. Murong Bao waited for several months and didn't get the living conditions in Mu Rongchui. Tuoba GUI came to the river with the captured Houyan messenger and ordered him to cross the river and tell Murong Bao: "Your father Mu Rongchui is dead, why don't you go back early?" Murong Bao and others were worried and afraid after hearing this, and the soldiers were also frightened.
Tuoba GUI sent Chen Liugong Tuoba Qian to station 50,000 cavalry on the east bank of the Yellow River, Dongping Gong Tuoba Yi stationed 100,000 cavalry on the north bank of the Yellow River, and Lueyang Gong Tuoba Zun stopped 70,000 cavalry in the south of Houyan Army. At this point, the late Qin emperor Yao Xing also sent Yang Fusong to send troops to rescue Wei Jun.
The Yan and Wei armies fought for more than 20 days. Mu and others, Murong Lin's Ministry, and Zhao Wang of Houyan thought they were really dead, so they plotted to rebel and made Murong Lin emperor of Houyan. As a result, Mu and others were executed by Murong Bao, and there was suspicion between Murong Bao and Murong Lin. 125, due to mutual suspicion within the Yanjun, the soldiers did not want to play. Murong Bao had to order the burning of warships and withdraw his troops to return home at night. At that time, the ice on the Yellow River had not yet frozen. Murong Bao thought that Wei Jun would never cross the Yellow River to chase them, so he didn't send reconnaissance troops.
On the third day of November, a strong wind suddenly blew, the temperature dropped, and the ice on the Yellow River soon froze. Tuoba GUI led the troops to cross the river, leaving military supplies, and selected more than 20,000 elite cavalry to pursue the Yan army. Wei Jun chased him day and night, and at dusk on the ninth day of November, Wei Jun chased him to the west of Shenbei (Daihai, located in Liangcheng, Inner Mongolia, east of Yanggao, Shanxi).
At this point, Yan Jun has been in Jidong and camped by the river south of Panyang Mountain. Tuoba GUI deployed generals from all walks of life overnight to sneak up on the Yan army, and asked the foot soldiers to carry a piece (in the ancient marching war, the foot soldiers carried equipment to prevent noise, which looked like chopsticks), tied the horse's mouth and secretly approached the Yan army. The next morning, Wei Jun has climbed up the hill, facing the Yan Jun camp below. When Yan Jun moved eastward, he found Wei Jun all over the mountains, and Yan Jun panicked and was in chaos.
Tuoba GUI took advantage of the situation to attack, Yan entered the water, people hit horses and trampled on them, and tens of thousands of people were killed and drowned. Lueyang and Tuoba Zun's troops were in front of the fleeing Yanjun. Forty or fifty thousand Yanjun immediately laid down their weapons and surrendered easily, only a few thousand people escaped. Murong Bao and others escaped alone and survived. Wei Jun killed Hou Yan's right servant, mourned Wang Murong Shao, captured alive thousands of civil and military officials such as Luyang Wang Murong Bono, Murong Daocheng and Gong Murong Yinguo, and seized countless weapons, armor, hay and trench.
Tuoba GUI chose talented ministers captured by Hou Yan, such as Dai Jun magistrate Jia Run, Jia Run's cousin, Changli magistrate Jia Yi, Taishilang Chaochong, and so on, and all stayed. The rest are ready to give them clothes and food to go home, hoping to win the favor of Houyan people with such goodwill.
Wang Jian, an adult in Central China, told Tuoba GUI that Houyan is a powerful country with a large population. This time, we mobilized the whole country to attack. We were lucky to win such a big victory. We might as well kill all these people. The back swallow is empty inside, so it will be much easier to attack them in the future. Therefore, Tuoba GUI ordered all the captured Houyan soldiers to be buried alive.
Influence of the Battle of Shenbei River
Murong Bao was deeply humiliated by the failure of the Battle of Shenhe North, so he asked Mu Rongchui to send troops to attack the Northern Wei Dynasty again. Murong De encouraged Mu Rongchui to say: Wei Jun's victory in the north of Shenhe River will inevitably despise the incompetence of the prince; Only by defeating Wei Jun's spirit can Yan Jun's ambition grow.
On March 26th, the 11th year of Deng Guo (396), Mu Rongchui asked Murong De to guard Zhongshan and personally led a great army to attack the Northern Wei Dynasty again. This time, Yan Jun changed the marching route: Murong Bao and Murong Nong marched from the north road, Murong Long marched from the west road, Mu Rongchui crossed Hengshan from the middle road, cut in from the mountain road and marched into the clouds at the same time.
In the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were about 30,000 tribes headed by Chen Liugong and Tuoba Qian, guarding the city of peace. Mu Rongchui came to Hunting Ridge and let Murong Nong, the king of western Liaoning, and Murong Long, the king of Levin, raid TaBaQian as vanguard troops. At this point, because Yan Jun has just suffered a fiasco, they are very afraid of Wei Jun. Only the Liuzhou troops under Murong Long are brave and decisive, and they are all scrambling. TaBaQian never pay attention to alert.
Leap on March 12th, Yan Jun came to the city of peace, TaBaQian just found out, hurriedly led his men to fight, and was defeated. Yan Jun merged his tribe. Tuoba GUI was surprised and afraid after hearing the news, and planned to give up the capital and escape. When other tribes heard the news of TaBaQian's death, they all had second thoughts. Tuoba GUI was at a loss.
When Mu Rongchui led the army through Shenbei, he saw that there were still piles of bodies there, so he paid tribute to the victims. The soldiers all burst into tears, and the crying shook the valley. Seeing this, Mu Rongchui was ashamed and angry, vomiting blood and sickness, and stopped at three miles northwest of Pingcheng. Murong Bao and others withdrew their troops from the front line after hearing the news.
A defector in the Yan army ran to the Northern Wei Dynasty and said, "Mu Rongchui is dead, pulling his body with a car." Tuoba GUI had intended to pursue the Yan army, but when he heard that the city of peace had fallen, he led his troops back to Yinshan. Mu Rongchui lived in Pingcheng for ten days, but his condition deteriorated. He built Yanchang City here and sent his troops back to Korea. On April 10, he died on the way to Shangqiu where Li passed.
After Mu Rongchui's death, Murong Bao succeeded to the throne, and the internal relationship of Houyan weakened. In August of the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (396), Tuoba GUI led 400,000 troops south to Mayi, crossed Jurong and attacked Houyan on a large scale. In the second year of Emperor Chengzu of Ming Dynasty (397), Zhongshan, the capital of Houyan, was captured.
In the first year of Tianxing (398), Tuoba GUI moved the capital to Pingcheng. Since then, the Northern Wei Dynasty has eliminated the regimes of Huxia, Beiyan and Beiliang, unified the North, ended the long-term division of the North, and the people of all ethnic groups in the North have entered a stage of peaceful development.