A special force in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Begging for a living army: a special force in the Southern and Northern Dynasties

A begging word and a movable type can understand the misery and misfortune of all refugees in that era. The emergence and existence of the begging army fully witnessed the tragic and desolate period of that great historical turmoil.

During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, such a special army was active in the northern battlefield. It is special because it is a special product of this particular historical period. The composition of the army is neither official recruitment nor folk spontaneity, but has both official and folk characteristics. It is a collective refugee organized by the government, and it is the team with the strongest unity, the widest range of activities and the longest duration among the refugees.

Begging for work means begging for life. In order to solve the most basic problem of food and shelter, the begging army wandered around and fought all over the country. Its formation stems from the tide of refugees. Refugees have existed in China to varying degrees. Because of war or famine, people can't live, so they migrate in groups.

Refugees are different from immigrants, who will settle down after moving around and have the final destination; It is also different from immigration, which is official and organized migration. The refugees are more loose in form, often have no fixed place, and are in a state of mobility most of the time.

During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, refugees became more common. Years of war in the north, coupled with plagues and natural disasters, have seriously challenged people's most basic survival. For example, in the second year of Emperor Jinhui's Yongxing (AD 306), Ningzhou suffered from famine year after year, with frequent epidemics and hundreds of thousands of deaths. The food in the city is exhausted, and the mice pull out the grass to eat. Rats eat weeds, and the degree of famine can be imagined.

In the 4th year of Yongjia (AD 3 10), there were six locusts, namely, Youbin, Binhe, Siji, Qin and Yong, who ate all kinds of plants, cattle and horses (Zi Tong Zhi Jian), which can be said to be what they saw. In the sixth year of Yongjia (AD 3 12), there was a flood in Youzhou, and the people did not eat grains (The Book of Jin), which was also terrible. There are countless examples of this. Hunger is enough to make people break down and do anything incredible. In many areas, there is a human tragedy of changing hands to eat each other (The Book of Jin).

Natural disasters are inevitable and man-made disasters are frequent. Take Bingzhou (now northern Shanxi) as an example. At that time, bandits and thieves were rampant, roads were blocked, robbers and soldiers were everywhere, and there was no sense of security at all. The environment is the burning of temples, the depression of cities, and the ruins are like hell on earth. Survival is threatened, and people have to move around in search of peaceful refuge.

However, in troubled times, peace can only be relative. Even a paradise like Qiu Chi (described in a special chapter) is not enough to accommodate people all over the world. Most people still live in exile.

Things always complement each other. Refugees in troubled times, refugees disturbing the world, forming a vicious circle, also formed a prominent social problem in this period. The imperial court and local governments also tried to solve this problem, thinking of many ways, either moving refugees back to their original places or organizing resettlement. But there are so many refugees in troubled times that it is difficult to send them back.

Resettlement measures are also difficult to put in place, especially when ethnic minorities flood into the Central Plains. The local government is still in danger and has no time to take care of refugees. Therefore, there were many refugees at that time, and they were widely distributed, reaching an unprecedented situation.

Wherever refugees go, they are bound to be excluded, because there is a lack of food everywhere, so there are conflicts everywhere. Such as Sichuan, Hebei, Binhe and Yanzhou, tens of thousands of refugees are located in western Liaoning, attracting each other and making people uneasy (Book of Jin). There are also tens of thousands of refugees, bitter residents and burning cities in Yingchuan, Xiang, Runan, Nanyang and Henan (Zi Tongzhi Jian). It is a true portrayal of the situation at that time.

In order to prevent refugees from looting, armed guards have been organized in various places. When the refugees were attacked, they had to defend themselves and gradually formed their own armed forces spontaneously. Such as Yongzhou refugees, Hou Tuo, stationing troops between Jianghuai, refugees Zhang Ping and Van Jacob gathered thousands of people to be dock owners (Book of Jin), refugees Deng Ding, and so on. And plundered Hanzhong (Zijian).

Some have also established separatist regimes, the most typical of which is the regime of Pakistani Li Jianli (one of the sixteen countries). These refugee armed forces objectively aggravated social unrest.

In this case, the begging army also came into being. Among them, the most active and lasting one is Sima Teng, the prince of Yan. At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, Bingzhou (now the northern part of Shanxi) was starved and plundered by Hu Kou, and it was difficult for counties to protect themselves because of famine and chaos (Zi Tongzhi Jian).

In desperation, state generals Tian Zhen, Liu Yun, Bo Sheng, etc. Organized refugees and learned that they would go to Jizhou Valley in the name of begging, and followed Sima Teng to Jizhou (now in the south of Shanxi, southwest of Hebei, northeast of Henan and west of Shandong) to beg for food. This team is called the begging army.

They have at least two advantages in doing so: first, they will include refugees so that these people can rely on them; Second, it has formed a powerful armed force to facilitate food. Without property and shelter, they have to beg for food to survive. Such troops have no worries when fighting, are very brave and tenacious, and have become an important military force under Sima Teng.

The main battle of the begging army is basically with Schleswig. During the Eight Kings Rebellion, Sima Teng defended Yedu (now Linzhang County, Hebei Province) and attacked Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu. After Sima Ying's death, He Shile (who had been under the command of Sima Ying's old teacher) had not made a fortune. ) Revenge for Sima Ying, capture Yedu alive, kill Sima Teng and burn the city. Tian Zhen and others led the begging army to avenge Sima Teng in Leling and killed Sanchi.

Later, the begging army was divided because of political differences: some of them, led by Liu Yun and Dr. Bo Sheng, took refuge in Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea. After Sima Yue's death, the whole army was scattered, and Liu Yun led the begging army to escape to Congcang (Xu Changdong, Henan Province), where he fought many times with Schleswig's army (at this time Schleswig was already a general of the former Zhao Dynasty), which also made Schleswig suffer a lot.

For example, Shi Jilong (Shi Hu, nephew of Schleswig) attacked the beggar Wang Ping in Liangcheng (now Fangcheng County, Henan Province), and he was defeated (The Book of Jin), but this beggar army was finally destroyed by Schleswig. Another begging army, led by Tian Zhen, arrived in Shangdang (now Changzhi, Shanxi), and Schleswig paid a great price to defeat it. Among them, Chen Wu surrendered to Schleswig, then rebelled against Schleswig and went south to Jianghuai to take refuge in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

This special force, which was active in the ancient battlefield of China, survived for more than a hundred years, and its footprint spread all over the country, becoming a special case of refugee armed forces during the Sixteen Countries Period. For food, life and self-protection, they had to get involved in the war, which also showed the hardship and helplessness of the refugees at that time. A begging word and a movable type can read the misery and misfortune of all refugees in that era. The emergence and existence of the begging army fully witnessed the tragic and desolate period of that great historical turmoil.