Zhu Chao accompanied me to watch short videos

Shi Hu was cruel not only to the Han people, but also to his own people. When his ten-year-old son Shi Sui was at odds with Shi Hu, Shi Hu killed his son himself, and also killed his son's family of 26 people and buried them in one coffin.

Afterwards, Shi Hu reinstated his son Shi Xuan as the crown prince. However, Shi Xuan also opposed him, so Shi Hu killed Shi Xuan's family. After killing his two sons, Shi Hu chose to appoint his 10-year-old youngest son Shi Shi as the crown prince, which laid the groundwork for the civil strife in the Later Zhao Dynasty.

So what was Ran Min doing at this time? He was fighting against the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In 339 AD, Shi Hu led his son Shi Zun and his adopted grandson Ran Min to attack the cities of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

The Eastern Jin Dynasty's Emperor Zong Xiu ignored the call for help from Zhucheng, which eventually led to the fall of Zhucheng and the death of 6000 people. Ran Min was defeated in this battle by the Jin army, and from then on, he had a feud with the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Ten years later, Shi Hu died, Crown Prince Shi Shi was young, Empress Dowager Liu and Prime Minister Zhang Chai were in power, and Later Zhao quickly fell into civil strife.

Shi Hu loved his two sons Shi Zun and Shi Bin very much. They were older than Shi Shi and were also very powerful. In order to eliminate the hidden danger, Empress Dowager Liu falsely issued an imperial decree to kill Shi Bin and made Shi Zun the King of Pengcheng in an attempt to appease him.

Ran Min, a general of the Later Zhao Dynasty, tried his best to persuade Shi Zun to return to the capital Yecheng to seize power. Shi Zun was very happy and said to Ran Min, "I will make you the crown prince after the success." No one expected that this sentence would lead to the bloodshed and corpses everywhere.

Shi Zun had an army of 90,000, with Ran Min as the vanguard. They rushed straight to Yecheng with great momentum. Empress Dowager Liu and Zhang Chai were unable to resist and had to surrender in Kaicheng. It was Shi Zun who usurped the throne and appointed Ran Min as the commander-in-chief of the military forces at home and abroad, the general who aided the country, and the recorder of the Secretariat, to assist in government affairs. He also made Shi Bin's son Shi Yan the crown prince, which made Ran Min very disappointed.

In terms of seniority, Ran Min and Shi Bin were both nephews of Shi Hu, but Ran Min was not Shi Hu's biological son. Although he had the merit of supporting the emperor, he was still inferior to Shi Yan in terms of legality. Therefore, a rift arose between Shi Zun and Ran Min. Ran Min tried his best to take power in the court and tried to sideline Shi Zun. Shi Zun also began to be dissatisfied with Ran Min and asked his third brother Shi Jian to discuss how to seize Ran Min's power.

Unexpectedly, Shi Jian informed Ran Min, who sent troops into the palace to kill Shi Zun and enthrone Shi Jian as emperor. Although Ran Min was still called Shi Min at the time, he was only an outsider in terms of bloodline. He deposed and enthroned emperors twice, and his attitude of treating the Later Zhao imperial power as a joke aroused the hatred of the Later Zhao royal family, including Emperor Shi Chong.

How would Ran Min deal with the challenge from the royal family of the Later Zhao Dynasty? Not long after, Shi Jian sent someone to assassinate Ran Min, but not only did it fail, it also aroused Ran Min's vigilance. In order to prevent Ran Min from discovering that he had planned this, Shi Jian had to reluctantly kill the participants, including his own brother Shi Bao.

Soon after, Shi Jian's other brother Shi Zhi assembled a large army to attack Ran Min. Some members of the Later Zhao royal family who remained in Yecheng also tried to assassinate Ran Min, but were defeated by Ran Min.

From the above we can see that Ran Min’s power foundation was quite weak. The royal family of the Later Zhao Dynasty did not submit to him and attacked him together. There was even an incident where someone wanted to kidnap the emperor Shi Jian to attack Ran Min.

In order to eradicate the trouble, Ran Min led thousands of troops into the palace, imprisoned Shi Jian, and strangled the rebels. This coup d'état caused bloodshed in the palace, corpses were everywhere, and no one in the city fled.

Ran Min knew that no one would disobey his rule, so he issued the most controversial order in history to kill the Hu people: regardless of status, men and women, young and old, all were to be beheaded. This unprecedented campaign of killing the Hu people resulted in the death of more than 20 people, including many Han people who had already been assimilated to the Hu people.

Their bodies piled up outside the city, and no one was there to clean up the mess. They were eaten by wild dogs and wolves. This order to kill the Hu people has always been praised and criticized in history. First of all, the rule of Shi Hu of the Later Zhao Dynasty was extremely brutal, the people of the Central Plains lived in misery, and ethnic conflicts were very serious. This was the realistic basis for Ran Min to launch the order to kill the Hu people.

Secondly, Ran Min's identity was very awkward. He was the adopted grandson of Shi Hu and of Han descent. In the eyes of the Jiehu people, this person was not of their race and his heart must be different. But in the eyes of the Han people in the Central Plains, Ran Min was no different from those Jiehu people.

In such a situation where neither side was happy, could Ran Min's idea be realized? In the year after the order to kill the Hu people was issued, Ran Min ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. He restored his surname to Ran and named his country Da Wei, which is known in history as Ran Wei.

Thirty-eight descendants of Shi Hu were killed by Ran Min. Although Ran Min hated the Jiehu people, the Ran Wei regime he established still had a strong Jiehu color. Politically, the Hu and Han were divided, and militarily the tribal military system was retained. Even Ran Min's son was named the Great Chanyu.

Such a Ran Wei was in sharp contrast to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was dominated by aristocratic families at that time. The lack of orthodoxy was the biggest problem facing them. No one, either internally or externally, was willing to recognize the Ran Wei regime.

So how did Ran Min solve this problem? Shortly after Ran Min proclaimed himself emperor, Shi Hu's son Shi Zhi also proclaimed himself the emperor of Great Zhao and started a rebellion. Various places responded one after another, and the newly established Ran Wei regime fell into a situation of internal strife. Ran Min sent people to ask for help from the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which greatly annoyed the Eastern Jin court.

No one has caused trouble in the Central Plains, and now I have settled it. If you want to join me in the crusade, you can send troops to help me. The implication is that he wants to be on an equal footing with the Eastern Jin Dynasty as the emperor of the Central Plains, which is simply a fantasy for the Eastern Jin Dynasty court.

The Eastern Jin Dynasty has always claimed to be the orthodox Chinese dynasty, and that it is a continuation of the Han Dynasty, the Cao Wei Dynasty, and the Western Jin Dynasty. It did not recognize the Northern Dynasties that were separatist in the Central Plains, regardless of whether they were Hu or Han.

Therefore, the Eastern Jin Dynasty not only did not send people to support Ran Wei, but also sent troops to attack Ran Wei's Feihe and relocated thousands of local people. The Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was also a Han dynasty, could not be relied upon, so how should Ran Min deal with Shi Zhi's attack?

In 351 AD, Ran Min led 10 troops to attack Yecheng, Shi Zhi's base camp, and besieged it for more than 10 days, with heavy casualties. Murong Jun, the King of Yan who had just been canonized by the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and Fu Jian, the leader of the Di tribe, sent troops to rescue. The three parties combined more than troops, and Ran Min was defeated and hurriedly fled back to Yecheng.

Ironically, Murong Jun was a Xianbei, but was recognized by the Eastern Jin Dynasty and attacked Ran Wei as the King of Yan of Great Yan.

Although Ran Min was a Han Chinese, he was not recognized by the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was also a Han Chinese. So why did the Eastern Jin Dynasty do this? As mentioned earlier, the Eastern Jin Dynasty regarded itself as orthodox and did not recognize the Northern Dynasties in the north.

However, if the northern Hu leaders were willing to pay tribute to the Eastern Jin Dynasty and submit to it in name, then the Eastern Jin Dynasty would be very happy to confer them official titles. However, Ran Min proclaimed himself emperor and established a country, and he wanted to be on an equal footing with the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which challenged the legitimacy of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Precisely because the Eastern Jin Dynasty was the only orthodox Chinese dynasty, was Emperor Yang Min's northern expedition to the Central Plains intended to recover lost territory or to invade other countries?

Obviously, the simple national sentiments of the Han people were far less important than ensuring the foundation of their own rule. Therefore, the Eastern Jin Dynasty would rather support the Hu leader who surrendered than support the Han emperor Ran Min who wanted to be on an equal footing with the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

However, the greatest tragedy of Ran Min was that although he had the ambition to become emperor, he did not have the ability to defeat all the heroes. After retreating back to Yecheng, although Ran Min barely destroyed Shi Zhi, he was no longer able to deal with the massive attack of the Murong clan.

Ran Min was at the end of his rope and fled alone for more than 20 miles. He was eventually captured by Murong Jun's general Murong Ke, sent to Longcheng, and beheaded at Exing Mountain.

After Ran Min's death, the grass and trees within a few miles withered, and there was no rain for five consecutive months. Murong Jun hurriedly sent people to offer sacrifices to Ran Min and posthumously named him Wudao Tianwang.

Ran Min's failure was mainly due to the following reasons:

1. He was not in a legitimate position and could not win the support of the people. Although Ran Min was a great general of the Later Zhao, he did not achieve great success. He was raised by Shi Hu, but he instigated internal strife among Shi Hu's descendants, and then usurped the throne by abolishing two places. Both the Han and the Hu people regarded him as a disloyal and unfilial traitor.

Second, he was stubborn and refused to listen to advice. Wei Yu, the Grand Master of Imperial Households, was born into a noble family of the Han nobles. He was a Confucian scholar and was highly respected in the Later Zhao Dynasty. After Ran Min ascended the throne, Wei Yu advised Ran Min, and as a result, his entire family was brutally killed. Ran Min thus lost the support of the Han nobles.

3. Challenging the Eastern Jin Dynasty’s legal system, resulting in being attacked from all sides. Although the rule was brutal, the country had been established for decades and still had some influence in the north. Ran Min seized power as the adopted grandson of Shi Hu, but ascended the throne as an emperor as a Han Chinese. He did not inherit the legal system of the Later Zhao Dynasty, nor did he establish his own legal system. After all, there was a more orthodox Eastern Jin Dynasty at that time.

Even though he killed 20 Jiehu people, Ran Min could not gain recognition from his compatriots by using his Han identity. Instead, he was attacked from all sides and eventually died.

Was Ran Min's order to kill the Hu really meaningless? After that, the Former Qin regime learned the lesson of the demise of the Later Zhao and no longer ruled as cruelly as Shi Hu and his son. How much of a warning role did Ran Min's order to kill the Hu play?

——"Although Ran Min has many problems that cannot be washed away, he was the man who fought against foreign races in China's darkest hour, giving China the last ray of light."

——"If nothing else, the Han people might have become extinct without Ran Min. For this reason alone, the Han people should not have any negative comments about Ran Min."

——"Ran Min was the real darkness that enveloped everything. He was the last ray of light, shattering the darkness with thunder. Without Ran Min, there would be no Qihuo Army, and the Han people might have been destroyed."

——"Come on, you are worthy of being one of the Ten Sages of the Internet Temple. First of all, the Han dynasty in the south is still there, so it is not the turn of the Han people to be exterminated. Secondly, the Han people in the north are still there, and there are Han regimes in the north, and there are regimes that are friendly to the Han people. How can it be the turn of the middle to be exterminated?"

——"It's outrageous. They even exterminated the Han people. Former Liang was a northern Han regime that sheltered nearly one million Han people. The Xianbei Murong clan was also quite friendly to the Han people. Even Former Yan was a vassal of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. I really don't understand how a Hu person's adopted grandson could become a great hero."

[The Emperor who had the greatest hope of unifying the country during the Five Barbarians’ Invasion of China - History of the Former Qin Dynasty during the Five Barbarians’ Invasion of China]

He was the king who had the best chance to unify the world during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the Battle of Feishui, he mobilized a million troops, but was defeated by 8 Northern Army soldiers of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He missed the opportunity and caused the north to split again. In this video, we will talk about Fu Jian, the king of the Former Qin Dynasty.

After the Three Kingdoms, the Western Jin Dynasty experienced a few decades of short-lived stability. Starting from the Yongjia Rebellion, wars broke out everywhere. The Central Plains region was in chaos for years, people's livelihood was in decline, the population dropped sharply, the Han people were unable to rule the Central Plains, and the northern ethnic minorities took advantage of the situation and moved in. The Central Plains began to fall into the long-term turmoil and separatism of the Five Barbarians and Sixteen Kingdoms.

During this period, Fu Jian, a Di people, established the Former Qin regime in 351 AD.

After Fu Jian died, his son Fu Sheng ascended the throne. Fu Sheng was extravagant, cruel and ruthless. In 357 AD, Fu Jian's nephew Fu Jian launched a coup, deposed Fu Sheng, and gave the throne to his half-brother Fu Fa. However, Fu Fa was afraid to accept the throne because he was born out of wedlock, so Fu Jian, who was only 20 years old, succeeded the throne under the persuasion of his ministers.

As the third monarch of the Former Qin Dynasty, Fu Jian worked hard to govern the country in the early years of his reign, implemented Sinicization reforms, advocated and promoted Confucianism, and gave equal importance to Chinese culture. With the assistance of Han people such as Wang Meng, he introduced a series of policies to enrich the country and strengthen the military.

In just a few years, the Former Qin Dynasty transformed from a separatist regime in a remote corner into the most powerful overlord in the north.

After the country became strong, Fu Jian began to expand his territory. It is worth mentioning that, unlike other separatist forces of the same period, Fu Jian never committed a single massacre during his conquests.

In 369 AD, Murong Chui, who was considered the greatest warrior of the Sixteen Kingdoms, fled to the Former Qin Dynasty due to persecution. Fu Jian believed that he was a hero of great importance and took him in on the grounds that he had done nothing wrong. He personally went out to meet him, showed great respect to him, and even named him the Champion General.

——"The Golden Knife Scheme, one of the greatest conspiracies in ancient and modern times, is not even mentioned here."

A year later, Prime Minister Wang Meng, General Deng Qiang and others defeated the larger force with a smaller one and destroyed the Former Yan and captured the six prefectures in Guandong.

Fu Jian moved King of Yan Murong Wei and all the princes and nobles below him to Chang'an, and gave them different treatments according to their ranks. He also moved Murong Chui and more than 4 households of princes, nobles, ministers and other members of the Guandong clan, as well as more than 5 households of local wealthy families in Guanzhong to the vicinity of Chang'an. He also granted official titles to Murong Chui and other upper-class Xianbei people, and took Murong Chong's sister Princess Qinghe as his concubine, and Murong Chong became favored because of this.

——"He took in all the sisters and brothers, and when Fu Jian was defeated, Murong Chong was the first to rebel and kill Fu Jian!"

——"Isn't it already said that they are siblings? I remember there is a poem describing the Murong siblings."

When he was 34, the Former Qin Dynasty fell. The Qiuchi Di Yang family, who were also Di people, were captured and forced the Qiuchi leader Yang Zuan to surrender.

Two years later, he captured the two states of Qianliang and incorporated the Bashu region into his territory. At the same time, the Qiang people and Yelang states in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau also submitted to him.

Afterwards, Fu Jian sent his general Lu Guang to attack and destroy the Former Liang that occupied Liangzhou, and then destroyed the Dai Kingdom of the Xianbei Tuoba clan. He sent the Dai King Tuoba Shiyijian and the princes and ministers to the Imperial Academy in Chang'an to let them learn Chinese culture and promote the sinicization of the Xianbei nobles.

At this point, the Former Qin Dynasty had basically unified the north, its territory became the largest among the Five Barbarians, and it began a north-south confrontation with the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

But just when Fu Jian was full of confidence, he conquered Xiangyang, a strategic town of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and captured the Eastern Jin general Zhu Xu. This made the 42-year-old Fu Jian even more determined to destroy the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

So in 382 AD, Fu Jian convened a royal meeting and ambitiously put forward a plan to lead the entire country south to destroy the Eastern Jin Dynasty and unify the world in one fell swoop.

There was a fierce debate within the Former Qin ruling group on whether to launch this war. Most of the court officials and elders expressed opposition. In order to seek support, Fu Jian left behind his prime minister, Fu Rong, the Duke of Yangping, who succeeded Wang Meng after his death.

Although Fu Jian kept talking about his great ideals and aspirations, Fu Rong still opposed this military action and reminded Fu Jian to be vigilant against the Xianbei and other tribes who might take advantage of the opportunity to make a comeback. Fu Jian was very annoyed.