Whose interests were harmed by the move of the Northern Wei Dynasty to move to the town? What are the consequences?

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China, the Northern Wei regime in the north became more powerful because of the fierce power struggle within the rulers of the Southern Dynasties, which damaged their internal strength and lacked enterprising spirit. The rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty significantly improved their productivity and cultural level through the political reform of sinicization, resulting in the situation that the north was strong and the south was weak at that time.

However, at this time, the Northern Wei government still had the spare capacity to quell the rebellion. With the help of local strongmen, tribal leaders and gentle people, they defeated the uprising leaders of six towns, and the political situation in the Northern Wei Dynasty was temporarily stable. However, the northern Wei government misjudged the cause of the uprising, which made it decide to emigrate on a large scale, which made the second rebellion take place in the hinterland of the northern Wei empire and directly led to its final collapse.

Six towns were established in the Northern Wei Dynasty mainly to resist the gentle invasion from the north, so the earliest townspeople in six towns were mainly composed of military households and managed by local military chiefs. After the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital, the distance between the six towns and the capital became extremely far away. Moreover, with the shift of the political center of the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Central Plains, the status of the six towns in the Korean Bureau declined, which made the six towns get less and less supplies, and a large number of military households had to devote themselves to wasteland production to ensure food supply.

However, due to the cold climate in the area where Liuzhen is located, its wasteland output is very limited. And local officers lack necessary supervision, so the corruption in Jin Ryu is quite serious. These officers and their junior officers tried their best to search for the townspeople, which made it difficult for ordinary military households to ensure their livelihood.

Under such circumstances, the Taihe reform in the Northern Wei Dynasty abolished the hereditary system of officers, which made some junior officers in six towns very dissatisfied, so they had the will to resist the rule of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and those hungry townspeople were naturally willing to accept their rule, which was also the fundamental reason for the outbreak of the uprising in six towns.

After the Six Towns Uprising broke out, the Northern Wei Dynasty immediately began to suppress the rebellion. However, because most of the people in the six towns were professional soldiers with good fighting capacity, the counter-insurgency action in the Northern Wei Dynasty was not smooth at first. The rebels quickly occupied several military towns and defeated the northern Wei government forces, which made the northern Wei government feel great pressure.

But at this time, Yu Jin and others have proposed solutions other than military repression. They accurately realized that some local tribal chiefs and local strongmen in Jin Ryu did not support the uprising very much. They used to have a stable position and a lot of interests in the local area, and the rebellion of the townspeople would have a great impact on their income. Therefore, the Northern Wei Dynasty only needs to win over these local strongmen and let them join the counter-insurgency team, then the threat of the rebels will be quickly resolved.

Under the guidance of this policy, the chieftains of Tiele and other departments in six towns came to join in and launched an attack on the insurgents. Under the attack of internal and external forces, the situation of the rebel army began to become difficult, and was finally eliminated by the government forces of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

In addition to tribal chiefs, some local tycoons also joined the fight against the armed forces, mainly because they also have considerable industries in the local area, and they don't want their vested interests to be damaged in this uprising. Therefore, the combination of these two local forces is the fundamental reason why the Northern Wei Dynasty was able to quell the first uprising launched by Liu Han Baling and others.

After the Northern Wei Dynasty put down the Six Towns Uprising, ministers hoped that Xinli County, where the Six Towns were located, could properly manage the local people and protect the interests of people engaged in agricultural production. Such measures can not only ensure the living needs of the townspeople, but also have a great impact on the interests of local tycoons. This is a foolproof policy.

However, the rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty believed that these people started the uprising because they despised the royal power and lacked adequate supervision. So he ordered them to move to Jizhou, Dingzhou and other places to eat, let them contact the Han culture and monitor it:

Such a move is obviously a huge mistake. First, although the grain output in Jizhou and other places is extremely high, the local population is very dense, and it is impossible to provide enough food for the immigrants from six towns. On the contrary, it may cause conflicts between immigrants and local residents, laying hidden dangers for the safety of the empire.

On the other hand, after emigration, the population of Liuqiang Town, which once stood on the side of the rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was greatly reduced and its interests were seriously damaged. Naturally, they were very disappointed with the rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty. After the outbreak of the Central Plains Uprising, it stopped actively helping the Northern Wei Dynasty to suppress the rebellion, leaving the central government with no right-hand man.

To sum up, the immigration policy of the Northern Wei Dynasty not only failed to solve the living problems of the townspeople, but introduced new contradictions and brought crisis to the hinterland of the country. At the same time, it also destroyed the interests of government allies, resulting in the damage of political resources in the Northern Wei Dynasty, unable to cope with the troubled times in the Central Plains, and pushed the once powerful Northern Wei Dynasty to the brink of division.

The causes of rebellion in six towns in Northern Wei Dynasty are directly related to the conflict between the policy of localization and the early policy of Northern Wei Dynasty, the contradiction between Xianbei military aristocrats and new Han officials, and the exploitation and oppression of strongmen and citizens in six towns, which makes six towns have great hidden dangers.

However, judging from the process and results of the first rebellion in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the central government at that time was able to solve these problems, restore the six towns to peace, and effectively promote the sinicization reform of Xianbei soldiers. However, after the victory, the rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty took the wrong approach. They moved the townspeople in, hoping to eliminate hidden dangers through monitoring.

However, this did not solve the living problems of the townspeople, but also destroyed the vested interests of the military aristocrats in the six towns, which eventually led to their loss of trustworthy alliances, and the crisis in the Central Plains caused serious damage to the political order in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Therefore, the rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty misjudged the causes of the Six Towns Uprising, which was the fundamental reason for their ultimate national subjugation.

References:

1 Take history as a mirror

2 "Shu Wei"