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Fu Jian was not without supporters. Murong Chui, a surrendered general of the Former Yan, and Yao Chang, a leader of the Qiang tribe, strongly encouraged him to send troops and cheered him up. Therefore, Fu Jian gave these supporters who were hard to find the important task of leading troops.

In 383 AD, the 46-year-old Fu Jian insisted on his own way and led his army southward, but was defeated by the Northern Army commanded by Xie An and Xie Xuan of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, creating a terrifying record of 90 troops being defeated by 8 Northern Army soldiers. This was the famous Battle of Feishui in history.

After the disastrous defeat, Fu Jian was wounded and fled back to Chang'an. Murong Chui, a surrendered general of the Former Yan, took the lead in the rebellion, and his Xianbei people all responded with troops, and chaos ensued. The former tribal chieftains, trusted old ministers, and former officials rebelled and established their own states. The north fell into division again, and Guanzhong suffered greatly from the calamity of war.

Murong Chui took the opportunity to return to the former Yan State and proclaim himself king, while Murong Chong, Murong Hong and others challenged the defeated Fu Jian at the gates of Chang'an. It was then that Fu Jian suddenly realized that the power of success and influence was so fragile in the face of interests. As he angrily rebuked the rebellious Murong Chui, "Your clan is a beast in human form, and cannot be regarded as a national hero."

A year later, Murong Chong captured Afang City and approached Chang'an. Four years later, Murong Chong entered Chang'an. Due to lack of sufficient troops, Fu Jian had no choice but to leave his crown prince Fu Hong to defend the city while he fled with his family, preparing to gather troops to rescue Chang'an.

But soon after, he was surrounded by the Qiang leader Yao Chang and trapped in Yao Chang's army. Fu Jian refused to give up his throne to Yao Chang, and was eventually hanged to death in a Buddhist temple in Xinping by Yao Chang's men. He was 48 years old.

Although Fu Jian died, the Former Qin still held real power in many places. Its influence in Hebei, Shanxi, and Guanlong continued for 10 years. Nine years after Fu Jian's death, the Former Qin officially fell. After the fall of the Former Qin, the royal family of Fu Qin was slaughtered by other countries, and most of them served as officials in various countries, mainly in Qiuchi State.

Before the Battle of Feishui, Fu Jian won many battles and achieved great success because he used the right people. Although Wang Meng's joining the army was resisted and seriously injured by his clansmen, Fu Jian firmly believed that Wang Meng was a wise and resourceful minister and compared him to Zhuge Kongming. He resolutely maintained Wang Meng's authority against all odds, which is still a good story today.

After the Battle of Feishui, Fu Jian suffered repeated defeats and left a lasting regret because he had misjudged people. It is certainly not wrong to win over all quarters, respect the wise and humble, and win over heroes of all ethnic groups. However, if principles are lost and unchanged, Xie Ning will suffer the consequences.

Wang Meng had repeatedly reminded Fu Jian to be especially vigilant against foreign leaders with ill intentions, but Fu Jian took it for granted and showed them tolerance regardless of whether they were sincere in their surrender. The Murong clan of the Xianbei and the Yao clan of the Qiang were originally important figures in the enemy countries. Their surrender to the Former Qin was just a temporary measure, secretly looking for opportunities to make a comeback.

Fu Jian did not listen to Wang Meng's advice, did not ask, did not investigate, did not take precautions, and appointed all of them as generals. Fu Jian thought that he advocated benevolence and righteousness, and people would be grateful. He never thought that others' desire to restore their country was stronger than their desire to repay their gratitude, and that independence was stronger than consensus.

If you don’t observe people, how can you know them? If you don’t know people well, how can you recognize them? If you don’t know them well, how can you be called a good person? If you don’t observe people well and don’t employ people well, not only will you not be able to plan things, but you will also make things worse.

Fu Jian went even further in trusting the people he employed, but his decision not to employ people he doubted was overshadowed by his kindness and generosity.

The court is full of enemies who may change their forms at any time, and you are unaware of it day or night. How can you not be defeated?

Honesty and tolerance are good qualities for a person, but not necessarily for a monarch. In fact, successful monarchs often do not value keeping promises, and in the Sixteen Kingdoms period, when ethnic conflicts were sharp and the independence of various ethnic groups was strong, honesty and tolerance were even more unacceptable.

Such a Fu Jian is bound to make people sigh with regret, as if the dawn of China's unification was just around the corner, but he made a mistake and plunged headfirst into the abyss of chaos from which there was no escape.

——"Fu Jian is a truly kind and righteous man. He trusts people unconditionally and forgives them if they admit their mistakes."

——"Indeed, when fighting, they always let their own soldiers go first. This is simply unbelievable."

——"To be honest, you don't have the qualities of a great leader. You are more tolerant and kind than courageous."

——"Without Wang Meng, Fu Jian would be a toothless tiger. But to be honest, if I met such a big brother, I would be willing to follow him wholeheartedly. I can only say that I am not cut out to be the boss."

[The pioneer of national integration - Tuoba Hong Tuoba Hong History]

Historically, the reform and change of a dynasty could have serious consequences. In the spring of 528 AD, more than 2000 high-ranking officials and ministers were surrounded by cavalry on the bank of the Yellow River. Looking at the turbulent water, all of them looked desperate.

In a flash, swords and axes chopped and arrows flew everywhere. The Yellow River turned into a river of blood. More than 2000 people died. This scene that happened 1500 years ago was absolutely a disaster for a dynasty.

The cause of this disaster can be traced back to the reforms of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which were praised in history.

The predecessor of the Northern Wei Dynasty was the nomadic people in the north, the Xianbei. They had been in frequent contact with the Han people since the Eastern Han Dynasty. Later, they gradually rose and established a regime, changed the country's name to Wei, unified the north and ruled it across the river from the Southern Dynasty, which is known in history as the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Emperor Xiaowen Tuoba Hong was born in the imperial palace of Pingcheng, the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty at the time, and was made crown prince at the age of three.

However, the Northern Wei Dynasty at that time implemented the system of "the son is noble and the mother is dead". In order to prevent the harem from interfering in politics, the biological mothers of all heirs to the throne would be executed immediately, and Tuoba Hong's biological mother, Lady Li, was no exception.

Therefore, Tuoba Hong was raised by his grandmother, Empress Dowager Feng, from an early age. It was also this Empress Dowager Feng who had an important influence on Emperor Xiaowen's reforms in the future.

Empress Dowager Feng's grandfather Feng Ba was the founder of the Sixteen Kingdoms Northern Yan. As a Han Chinese, Empress Dowager Feng believed that the only way out for the Northern Wei Dynasty to maintain long-term stability was to assimilate to the Han Dynasty.

Therefore, Empress Dowager Feng arranged for Tuoba Hong to receive strict Confucian education since childhood, so that he accumulated rich experience in governing the country, which laid a solid foundation for the future reform cause.

In 471 AD, the young Tuoba Hong ascended the throne as the 5-year-old crown prince. His adoptive mother Feng took charge of government affairs as the Grand Empress Dowager. Empress Dowager Feng's political vision and first-class governance ability also successfully opened the prelude to the Hanization reform in the middle period of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

In 485 AD, Tuoba Hong issued an imperial decree prohibiting the Xianbei custom of marrying people with the same surname.

In order to change the current situation where the income of Northern Wei officials mainly depended on rewards, plunder and corruption and bribery, Tuoba Hong imitated the Central Plains regime, paid salaries to officials on a regular basis, and began to implement the equal-field system and the three-chief system. Regardless of officials or civilians, the tax burden was shared equally, the farmers regained their land, and the national treasury became increasingly full.

Empress Dowager Feng, who had rich political experience, also managed to maintain a balance with the Xianbei conservatives. A sinicization movement was underway rapidly.

After the death of Empress Dowager Feng, who had controlled the Northern Wei regime for more than 20 years, the 24-year-old Tuoba Hong began to shoulder the burden of reform alone.

Tuoba Hong stopped all celebrations and ceremonial processions, banned alcohol and sex, and maintained the basic etiquette of three years of mourning. In this way, he announced to the world that this dynasty founded by the Xianbei people would take the ethics of the Central Plains as the foundation of the country and truly become the inheritor of Chinese civilization.

He imitated the Han ethnic group's etiquette, sat in the Mingtang, built the Taimiao, and offered sacrifices to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and Confucius.

Tuoba Hong was the supreme ruler of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and he wanted to draw a clear line between himself and the nomadic peoples of the grasslands. But to achieve this ideal, Tuoba Hong needed to make a bolder change, a decision that could even lead to the subversion of his regime.

The Northern Wei Dynasty was located in Pingcheng (now Tongda City, Xishan Province) for a long time. Its geographical location was in the north, and cold winds and sandstorms often blew, and it could snow in June, which was very unfavorable to the Northern Wei Dynasty's rule over the entire Central Plains region.

In order to implement the policy of sinicization, they had to leave Pingcheng, where the conservative Xianbei nobles were concentrated. But moving the capital was not an easy task, as it would inevitably affect the interests of some nobles, officials and civilians, and would inevitably be strongly opposed by them.

Emperor Xiaowen, who knew this well, did not hesitate to resort to deception and staged a self-torture plot. After the three-year mourning period was over, Tuoba Hong persuaded his ministers through divination and led his troops south, personally leading a million-strong army and civil and military officials from Pingcheng to attack the Xiao Qi regime in the south.

After more than a month of marching, they arrived at Luoyang, the old capital of the Wei and Jin dynasties. The continuous rain made the ministers miserable, and Rencheng King Tuoba Cheng led his ministers to risk their lives to advise and request to stop the southern expedition.

Tuoba Hong played hard to get, from initial refusal to later concession, he let everyone make a choice: either continue to move south or move the capital to Luoyang. The Northern Wei Dynasty had been founded for 107 years at this time, and the long years had made the nobles accustomed to a life of pleasure.

Although they were unwilling to move the capital, they were more afraid of the south. The exhausted officials finally chose the latter - moving the capital to Luoyang. The matter of moving the capital to Luoyang was decided, and this was the real purpose of Tuoba Hong's southern expedition.

Moving the capital to Luoyang was his first step in promoting sinicization, a strategy of using fait accompli to make old ministers submit, with Tuoba Cheng assisting from the side. Thus, a crucial event for the Northern Wei Dynasty was decided.

The Xianbei nobles also had to cut off their original lifestyle and customs, and the era of complete sinicization was about to come.

As the capital was relocated, a large number of Xianbei people continued to pour into the interior, and the civil and military officials and court institutions of the Northern Wei Dynasty also moved to Luoyang. However, the Xianbei people had the custom of braiding their hair and wearing left-side lapels, and most of them could not speak Chinese, which was not in line with the customs of the Central Plains.

Moreover, when the newly migrated people first arrived in Luoyang, they lacked housing and food, were not good at farming, and were nostalgic for the old days.

Faced with these problems, Emperor Xiaowen set out to reform the old Xianbei customs. He once again issued an edict requiring all court officials to use Chinese, and those who violated the edict would be immediately dismissed from office.

Tuoba Hong set an example by not only speaking Chinese but also composing many poems in Chinese. As a result, some Xianbei words were integrated into Chinese, enriching its expressiveness and influencing the country to this day.

Tuoba Hong also personally arranged for many Tuoba nobles to intermarry with prominent Han Chinese families. Through intermarriage, the Tuoba nobles gained recognition from the Central Plains gentry, allowing their blood to become one from then on.

In order to completely assimilate into the Han culture, the 30-year-old Tuoba Hong ordered all Xianbei nobles to change their surnames to Han surnames. Among them, the royal Tuoba clan changed their surname to Yuan. From then on, Tuoba Hong changed his name to Yuan Hong.

However, in the same year, the crown prince Yuan Xun, instigated by conservative nobles, killed his Han teacher and returned to Pingcheng in depression. Yuan Hong, in a rage, abolished the crown prince's status and ordered him to be executed. This shows Yuan Hong's determination to promote sinicization.

Yuan Hong also restored the family system of the scholar-officials that had been completely destroyed during the Five Barbarians and Sixteen Kingdoms era. He rigidly created a new family system in the original hierarchical social structure of the Xianbei people, granting different official positions and privileges to the Xianbei nobles according to the level of their surnames and clans.

Except for the eight Xianbei surnames, the Han-ized surnames and the tribes affiliated with them, other surnames were excluded from the aristocratic families. Official positions in the imperial court were always held by the children of aristocratic families. The poor were ruled from birth, and even if they had great knowledge and talents, they could only be low-level employees and could not be promoted.

This undoubtedly provided fertile soil for the corruption of the Xianbei nobles who had no cultural heritage.

Some ministers argued with Emperor Xiaowen about this, but he insisted on his principle that the court only considered family background rather than talent when recruiting people. This wrong choice of Emperor Xiaowen later caused serious divisions within the Northern Wei Dynasty, and laid the biggest hidden danger for the Northern Wei Dynasty to fall into civil strife and eventually perish.

In 497 AD, Yuan Hong took advantage of the civil strife in Southern Qi and personally led an army of 20 to the south.

Four years later in the autumn, the Southern Qi emperor passed away. Yuan Hong issued an edict to the Ministry of Rites to mourn and led his troops back. In 4 AD, Emperor Xiaowen suffered a relapse of his old illness during his southern expedition and eventually died on the way back to Luoyang at the age of 499.

Only 25 years after Emperor Xiaowen's death, the Xianbei military group in the border towns of the Northern Wei Dynasty launched an anti-Sinicization movement.

It turns out that after the establishment of the Northern Wei Dynasty, six military towns were built along the Great Wall defense line north of Gudu. These six towns controlled the main roads leading out of Pingcheng and had a very important strategic location.

Therefore, since the establishment of the Six Garrisons, the Northern Wei Dynasty attached great importance to its defense. Soldiers of the Six Garrisons would be rewarded for their meritorious service and would have the privilege of promotion, which attracted many young men to go to the frontier to make achievements. It can be said that the Six Garrisons supported the great military achievements of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

The Northern Wei Dynasty was able to fight its way through northern China and unify the north, thanks to the Six Garrisons. But since Emperor Xiaowen's reforms and the relocation to Luoyang, the situation has changed.

The status of the old capital of the Northern Wei, Pingcheng, declined, and the status of the six towns that served as a barrier also greatly declined. Moreover, since the defeat of the Rouran in the north, the military focus of the Northern Wei also shifted from defending the northern border to seizing the Jianghuai River and conquering the Southern Dynasty.

After Emperor Xiaowen's reforms, his policy of sinicization had little impact on the Six Garrisons due to their remote location. However, the sinicization efforts around Luoyang were very strong, so that they gradually differentiated into the Dilu Xianbei and the Six Garrisons Xianbei, and the Xianbei residents who remained in the north were increasingly marginalized.

The relocation of the capital and the southern expedition led to a tight national finance, and the economic support for the Six Garrisons continued to decrease. The Six Garrisons' leaders began to extort soldiers, and many exiled prisoners were also sent to the Six Garrisons to serve as soldiers. Various contradictions were intertwined here, and the once glorious Six Garrisons soldiers gradually became synonymous with shame.

At the same time, after Emperor Wen moved south, the Northern Wei Dynasty became increasingly corrupt, greedy for enjoyment, internal power struggles within the royal family, and corruption among the bureaucrats and aristocrats.

Finally, in 523 AD, the Rouran Khanate took the opportunity to revive and led its troops to attack the Six Garrisons. The Six Garrisons were already weak and powerless, unable to resist, and suffered heavy losses. Under this stimulus, the Six Garrisons Uprising led by the Xiongnu Po Liu Han Bojin broke out.

Gao Huan saw an opportunity at this time. Also stimulated by the Six Garrisons Uprising, Erzhu Rong rose to power in the chaos. He started by suppressing the Six Garrisons Uprising and took control of the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the end, the Northern Wei Dynasty was destroyed, which benefited Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai, and the Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties were divided.

After the fall of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Xiaowen's reform measures were too drastic and thorough, and he neglected many issues at once. His successors also failed to continue to adjust and improve the reform measures, which led to the decline of the Northern Wei regime.