The famous China star in history textbooks: Tuoba Hong, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was actually a war maniac.

The history of the Northern Wei Dynasty may be unfamiliar to most people. When introducing the history of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the junior middle school history textbook only focuses on the Battle of Feishui in the Sixteen Countries of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Sinicization Reform of Emperor Xiaowen in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Emperor Xiaowen gives the impression that he is probably a modest gentleman and full of sincere feelings for Chinese civilization. However, from all the historical facts, we will find that this great Chinese reformer who loves Chinese civilization deeply still has the militant blood of nomadic people in his bones. It was also during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen that the once indestructible defense lines of the Southern Dynasties were opened, and the defensive situation of the Southern Dynasties against the Northern Dynasties changed qualitatively, basically laying a foundation for the situation that the Northern Dynasties were strong in the north and weak in the south. First, move the capital to Luoyang: Emperor Xiaowen actually kills two birds with one stone. After Emperor Tuoba Hong, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty came to power, he vigorously promoted the sinicization reform. It was under his command that all the royal families of Tuoba Xianbei changed their Chinese surnames. At the end of the eighteenth year of Taihe (AD 494), after several years of brewing, Emperor Xiaowen officially ordered the capital to be moved from Pingcheng to Luoyang. Under the pretext of conquering Nanqi, he led all ministers and troops to Luoyang and officially announced the order to move the capital. In the past historical narration, everyone seems to have deviated from historical facts. It seems that Emperor Xiaowen's expedition to the south is an excuse, and moving the capital is the real purpose. In fact, this completely misunderstood Emperor Xiaowen. Let's briefly review the experience of Emperor Xiaowen since he acceded to the throne. Emperor Xiaowen's life experience is actually quite special, because one person: Feng, the queen mother of civilization. Feng is the queen, the first mother (non-biological mother) of Emperor Xianwen and the first grandmother of Emperor Xiaowen. This Feng Taihou is an iron lady. After Wen Ping's early death, she raised the young Emperor Xian Wen and took charge of her own affairs. Xian Wen once returned to politics when he grew up, but the differences in their personalities gradually exposed. In addition, Emperor Xianwen was very dissatisfied with Feng Taihou's favor, Toy Boy, and took the opportunity to kill Li Yi and Li Fu, which triggered a huge contradiction between the emperors. Feng Taihou then used diabolical means, first forcing Emperor Xianwen to give way to TaBaHong, who was only five years old, and then killed Emperor Xianwen by secret means, and resigned from the court again. During Feng Taihou's administration, the official salary system, the three-year system and the equal land system were implemented one after another, and the political situation was stable and the national strength was enhanced. After Mao's death, decades of continuous political turmoil finally ended, and the Northern Wei Dynasty began to resume its expansion ambitions. Although Emperor Xiaowen was very afraid of this famous grandmother, he basically inherited Feng Taihou's iron fist policy of localization and external expansion during the period of 18. Therefore, after he led the government, he immediately promoted the policy of sinicization in an all-round way, and at the same time continued the intention of Feng Taihou's expansion to the Southern Dynasties militarily. In the eighteenth year of Taihe, Emperor Xiaowen moved south to Luoyang. In fact, he didn't use the South Expedition as a smokescreen, but really wanted to kill two birds with one stone. He not only moved the political center to Luoyang, but also commanded the troops in the north of Han (Jiang) and nearby Huaibei to launch a fierce attack on the Southern Dynasties. So why did Emperor Xiaowen choose to launch a large-scale war at the critical moment of Sinicization reform after only three years of pro-government? Second, the first personal expedition: Emperor Xiaowen's ambition was so great that Emperor Xiaowen's expedition to the south was actually influenced by the civil strife in the Southern Dynasties. In 494, Xiao Ze, the emperor of the Southern Qi Dynasty, died, and his two sons were successively abolished and killed by Xiao Luan, the king of Xichang. Xiao Luan acceded to the throne for Ming Di. Since Xiao Luan acceded to the throne, I'm afraid the imperial clan children will rise up and attack him, so he will start first and kill all the descendants of Emperor Wu. At the same time, the imperial clan will kill each other, and some people will be punished. Everyone in the ruling and opposition parties will feel insecure and the political situation will be turbulent. Emperor Xiaowen took this opportunity to launch an attack. In fact, when Feng Taihou was in power in 1945, the Northern Wei Dynasty took advantage of the Southern Song Dynasty and the Li Dynasty to launch an attack along the Huaihe River. Due to the effective organization of Emperor Gao Di of Qi State, the Northern Wei army did not take any advantage. Qi Gaodi and Qi Wudi were in power for more than ten years, and the political situation was relatively stable. There was no military opportunity in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the situation gradually stabilized. At this time, the political chaos in Nanqi was slightly messed up by this good opportunity. What was the focus of the Civil War? What is the general goal of Emperor Xiaowen's southern expedition? The confrontation between the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties can be divided into three stages. The first stage is the late Jin Dynasty and the early Song Dynasty. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty invaded Dingke, Henan, Guanzhong and Qingqi in the north, and the Northern Wei Dynasty could only maintain a corner of Hebei, which was a period when the south was strong and the north was weak. The second stage is the confrontation between Yuanjia and Wu Tai. The Northern Wei Dynasty and Liu Song inspired a fierce war in Henan and Qing Dynasty. The two-stage Yinjia Northern Expedition ended in failure. Liu Song lost most of its territory in Henan, and the Northern Wei Dynasty gradually advanced to the Huaihe River. Even when the Three-dimensional Jia Northern Expedition failed, Emperor Tuoba Tao of the Northern Wei Dynasty counterattacked and hit Guabu City. The third stage is a period of all-round progress in the era of filial piety and martial arts. Before the Northern Wei Dynasty, Shandong Peninsula and southern Henan were completely occupied by the civil strife of the Song and Ming emperors and the replacement of the Song and Qi Dynasties. However, under the stubborn resistance of Nanqi, it is difficult to stably occupy the Huaihe River. Especially in the upper reaches of Huaihe River, the southern dynasties occupied Yiyang area, which threatened the hinterland of Henan at all times. The Northern Wei Dynasty had two main purposes. One is to completely break the Huaihe River defense line on the western line and push military pressure to Jiangbei. The second is to eliminate the influence of the Southern Dynasties in Han Xiang and completely remove the threat of the Southern Dynasties to Henan. In the eighteenth year of Taihe, the gentle Emperor Xiaowen bared his teeth and launched a crazy attack on the south for four years. The first expedition to the south took place after moving the capital to Luoyang. Cao Hu, the secretariat of Yongzhou in the Southern Qi Dynasty, sent a letter to Xiangyang to surrender, and Emperor Xiaowen immediately sent four armies to attack Nanzheng, Xiangyang, Yiyang and Zhongli respectively. Nanzheng and Yiyang are the main directions. Yiyang, the capital of Sizhou in the Southern Dynasties, posed the greatest threat to Henan. As a result, the Northern Wei Dynasty invested more than 100,000 people, surrounded Yiyang and launched a fierce attack. Xiao Luan, Emperor of the Southern Qi Dynasty, instructed Yiyang to perform his duties and sent more troops to reinforce Yiyang. The northern Wei dynasty was not fully prepared for military affairs, and was defeated by the internal and external attack of the Qi army. Nanzheng also sent some garrison troops to attack the Northern Wei Dynasty in an attempt to seize Hanzhong. However, due to the limited strength of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the western front, although Yuan Ying presided over the attack, it was still under the command of Xiao Yi, the younger brother of Liang Wudi Xiao Yan, a general of the Southern Qi Dynasty, and was defeated in a panic. Xiangyang direction because the situation is unknown, Wei Jun didn't attack, clock away from the direction because Nanqi sent troops to fight back, all reached an impasse. Emperor Xiaowen led more than 300,000 people, including many non-combatants, from Luoyang to Xingxuancheng (now runan county, Henan Province). After the meeting, he led the army along Huaidong to Shouchun and Zhongli. Nanqi constantly sent troops to harass, but due to the large number of cavalry in the Northern Wei Dynasty, it could not achieve any effect under field conditions. Emperor Xiaowen didn't want to retreat and attack Nanqi's fortified city. He went to Bagong Mountain outside Shouchun, climbed the mountain, made a poem, and then left. Probably miss the scene when Fu Jian was there. After arriving in Zhongli, Emperor Xiaowen suddenly ordered the armies to besiege the city, as if to break through the Huaihe River defense line from here and follow the miracle of Liang Wudi's direct attack on health. However, due to insufficient preparation, Emperor Xiaowen had to lead the army back to the north. The first expedition to the south was basically over. This expedition, Emperor Xiaowen made up his mind and spread out a big stall, stretching thousands of miles from Hanzhong to Mianbei and from the upper reaches of Huaihe River to the middle and lower reaches. However, due to insufficient preparation and quick response of Nanqi, there has been no great progress. Third, the second expedition to the south: cutting a small mouth and punching hard, swallowing Taihe North County for 21 years. Emperor Xiaowen fully summed up the lessons of the first expedition to the south, and after careful preparation, he personally expedition again. The characteristics of this expedition are very prominent: first, the goal is concentrated, only hitting the counties in northern Mian, with the aim of seizing southern Henan and alleviating the national defense threat faced by Luoyang. Second, it is powerful and has mobilized more than 200,000 troops. This figure is the real number of troops, not including non-military personnel like the first time. What places does Mianbei County refer to? Mian is the Hanshui River, and the northern part of the Hanshui River is Yongzhou in the southern dynasty, extending northward to Nanyang, which is very close to Luoyang. As soon as Emperor Xiaowen sent his troops, he surrounded Nanyang and Xinye, and invested heavily in division and encirclement. Emperor Ming of the Southern Qi Dynasty was too busy to pacify the internal imperial clan forces to pay enough attention to the management of Mianbei. He didn't take the initiative to threaten Luoyang, and he didn't put enough strength into it. So when the Northern Wei army thundered, the Qi army could not cope at all. Emperor Qi Ming sent the central imperial army to the north for rescue, but the water was far from thirsty, and Shouyang and Li Zhong were transferred to the front line to defend the north and contain the Northern Wei Dynasty. After fierce fighting, Emperor Xiaowen of Wei captured five counties in Mianbei, compressed Yongzhou in the Southern Dynasties to Xiangyang, and opened the gateway to the Yangtze River basin. The results of the second Northern Expedition were quite outstanding. The area centered on Nanyang, Yongzhou Department of the Southern Dynasties, did not recover until the demise of Chen Nan. The Northern Wei Dynasty was able to manage Nanyang, which was used as a base for advancement, and repeatedly threatened Xiangyang, Yingzhou and Jingzhou. The third pass of Yiyang in the east also lost its flank cover, and it became more and more difficult for the Southern Dynasties to consolidate the defensive situation. However, Emperor Xiaowen's strategic goal has not been achieved. Take Mianbei instead of Yiyang, half a hundred miles. At the same time, the strong fighting capacity of Nanqi in the middle and lower reaches of Huaihe River still made the Northern Wei Dynasty at a loss. In particular, Pei Shuye, the secretariat of Yuzhou in Southern Qi Dynasty, led Shouchun's people to fight back across the border, and once beat Yang Guocheng almost untenable. This was a headache for the northern Wei army. Fourth, the third expedition to the south: Emperor Xiaowen's middle road collapsed. At the end of his second expedition to the South, there was another political turmoil in the Southern Dynasties. After the death of Emperor Qi Ming, his son Xiao Baojuan succeeded to the throne. In the twenty-third year of Taihe, in order to stabilize the situation, Nanqi sent Edwin La Sherda, a leading soldier, to lead the Central Imperial Army to Jiankang, and went to Mianbei again, leading about 40,000 troops to fight back. Edwin Lassier has long-term experience in guarding Fancheng. He has fought many wars with Wei Jun and won many victories. He won the trust in the era of Emperor Qi Ming and was the highest-ranking general in the central government with extraordinary prestige. He led the army to show Nanqi's confidence in winning. Chen Xianda invaded Nanyang from Xiangyang, and soon occupied Ma Juan and Yang Shun. The Northern Wei Dynasty sent Yuan Ying to resist, but was defeated by Edwin Lassier. Emperor Xiaowen was furious and ordered Yuan Ying to be severely punished. The status of counties in Mianbei is self-evident. If Edwin Lachilda takes it away, it will be difficult to get it back later. On balance, Emperor Xiaowen, regardless of his illness, led more than 100,000 troops south from Luoyang and personally fought Edwin Lassier. The number of Qi troops is far less than that of Wei Jun, and it took a lot of troops to attack the city before, so it was impossible to resist the new forces brought by Emperor Xiaowen. After a fierce battle, Chen Xianda's army was defeated. He abandoned the army and fled south, losing 20,000 to 30,000 troops and basically losing combat effectiveness. Wei Jun could have tried to attack Xiangyang and Fancheng, but Emperor Xiaowen was so tired that he could not afford it. Not long after, he died of illness in Diaocheng. Wei Jun can no longer attack the south. Emperor Xiaowen was in power for just nine years, but he spent more than four years on the front line. Although he fundamentally promoted the sinicization of Xianbei nobles, he was also full of deep hostility towards the Southern Dynasties. His three expeditions to the south profoundly changed the confrontation between the north and the south and opened the door for the Southern Dynasties in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Xuan Wudi Yuanke, the successor of Emperor Xiaowen, saw the great achievements of Emperor Xiaowen's expedition to the south and spared no effort to continue the war of aggression against China. Therefore, the Northern Dynasties gained a strategic advantage that they had never had since Taizu, and it can be said that it originated from Emperor Xiaowen.