Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei - Middle Reign

Middle Reign

In spring 432, Emperor Taiwu honored his wet nurse, Nurse Empress Dowager Dou, empress dowager. He also created one of Helian Bobo's daughters as his empress, and his oldest son Tuoba Huang, by his deceased concubine Consort Helan, crown prince.

In summer 432, Emperor Taiwu, with Xia destroyed, began to attack Northern Yan in earnest. By fall 432, he had put Northern Yan's capital Helong (和龍, in modern Jinzhou, Liaoning) under siege. While he had several victories over Northern Yan forces, he chose to withdraw at the start of winter, after seizing a large number of Northern Yan's people and forcibly resettling them in his own state. For the next few years, he would launch yearly attacks against Northern Yan with the same pattern—seeking to weaken Northern Yan gradually. While Emperor Taiwu was concentrating on Northern Yan, he also had Northern Liang on his mind, but at the advice of his minister Li Shun (李順), he decided to wait until Northern Liang's long-time prince, Juqu Mengxun, died.

In winter 432, the Northern Yan emperor Feng Hong's son Feng Chong (馮崇), who had feared that his father would put him to death because of false accusations by his stepmother Princess Murong, surrendered the important Northern Yan city of Liaoxi (遼西, in modern Tangshan, Hebei) to Northern Wei. To reward Feng Chong, Emperor Taiwu not only sent his brother Tuoba Jian (拓拔健) the Prince of Yongchang to save Feng Chong from his father's siege, but created him the Prince of Liaoxi with 10 commanderies as his fief.

In 433, Juqu Mengxun died, and Emperor Taiwu began to consider conquering Northern Liang. Still, initially, he continued to accept Juqu Mengxun's son Juqu Mujian as a vassal, and he took Juqu Mujian's sister as an imperial consort.

In spring 434, Helian Chang, for reasons lost to history, fled out of Pingcheng and apparently tried to start a rebellion. He was killed in battle, and Emperor Taiwu had Helian Chang's brothers put to death.

Also in spring 434, after initially refusing a peace offer from Northern Yan, Emperor Taiwu accepted after Feng Hong made an offer to give his daughter to Emperor Taiwu as a consort and returned the detained Northern Wei ambassador Huniuyu Shimen (忽忸于什門), who had been imprisoned by Feng Hong's brother and predecessor Feng Ba in 414 after being commissioned by Emperor Mingyuan. Emperor Taiwu, however, ordered Feng Hong to also send his crown prince Feng Wangren (馮王仁) to Pingcheng to meet him, and Feng Hong refused, ending the brief peace, and by summer 434, Northern Wei resumed its periodic attacks on Northern Yan. Meanwhile, around this time, he also took the sister of Rouran Chilian Khan Yujiulü Wuti as an imperial consort and married his sister or cousin Princess Xihai to Yujiulü Wuti, to further cement the peaceful relations.

In fall 434, while attacking the Xiongnu rebel Bai Long (白龍), Emperor Taiwu took Bai's forces lightly, and was nearly captured in an ambush, saved only by the efforts of his guard Houmochen Jian (侯莫陳建). He subsequently defeated Bai and slaughtered Bai's tribe.

In 436, Feng Hong sent another embassy, offering to send Feng Wangren as a hostage. Emperor Taiwu, not believing in Feng Hong's offer, refused, and prepared a final assault. When he arrived at Helong, however, Feng Hong had already requested assistance from Goguryeo, which sent troops to assist Feng Hong's plans of relocating his people to Goguryeo soil, and because Emperor Taiwu's general Tuxi Bi was drunk, the Northern Wei forces could not give chase, and in anger, Emperor Taiwu imprisoned and then demoted both Tuxi and his deputy, the general E Qing (娥清) to being common soldiers, although he subsequently made them generals again. He then sent messengers to Goguryeo, demanding that Goguryeo turn Feng Hong over. Goguryeo's King Jangsu refused, albeit humbly requesting to serve Emperor Taiwu together with Feng Hong. Emperor Taiwu, at the suggestion of his brother Tuoba Pi (拓拔丕) the Prince of Leping, did not immediately carry out a campaign against Goguryeo. (By 438, however, Feng Hong and Goguryeo would have a fall out, and King Jangsu would have Feng Hong executed.)

In late 436, the peaceful relations that Northern Wei had with Rouran since 431 ended, for reasons no longer known. Rouran continued its harassment of Northern Wei's northern border regions.

In 437, the marriage negotiations that Emperor Taiwu had with Liu Song's Emperor Wen appeared to reach some fruition, as Emperor Wen sent his official Liu Xibo (劉熙伯) to Northern Wei to discuss details of how one of his daughters would be married into the Northern Wei imperial household, but at this time, Emperor Wen's daughter died, and the negotiations ended.

Also in 437, exasperated by the rampant corruption that his local officials were engaging in (which was somewhat necessary for them because at this point, no Northern Wei officials received a salary), he issued an edict creating incentives for low-level officials and commoners to report officials for corruption. However, the edict did not have its calculated effect, as the people who had evidence of the officials' corruption instead used the knowledge to blackmail the officials, and the officials continued to be corrupt.

Later in 437, Emperor Taiwu married his sister Princess Wuwei to Juqu Mujian, and Juqu Mujian sent his heir apparent Juqu Fengtan (沮渠封壇) to Pingcheng to be a hostage. Despite this, he continued to consider conquering Northern Liang, but at Li Shun's urging, delayed it.

In 438, Emperor Taiwu launched a major attack on Rouran, but Rouran forces largely eluded his, and he made little gain.

In 439, aggravated that Juqu Mujian's sister and sister-in-law Lady Li (with whom Juqu Mujian was having an affair) had tried to poison Princess Wuwei, and also unhappy that Juqu Mujian had friendly relations with Rouran, decided to launch a major attack on Northern Liang. Li Shun, who had previously advised him to attack Northern Liang, by this point had somehow switched positions and, along with Tuxi Bi, opposed such military actions, stating falsely that there was so little water and grass for grazing in Northern Liang that Northern Wei troops would suffer from thirst and hunger. At Cui Hao's insistence, however, Emperor Taiwu believed that he could conquer Northern Liang, and he launched the campaign. He quickly reached the Northern Liang capital Guzang (姑臧, in modern Wuwei, Gansu) in the fall, capturing it after a short siege. Meanwhile, Yujiulü Wuti had launched a surprise attack on Pingcheng to try to save Northern Liang, but was repelled. (Cui Hao, who was a political enemy of Li Shun's, would attribute Li's switch in position to bribes by Juqu Mujian, and later Emperor Taiwu would force Li to commit suicide.) Northern Liang territory was largely in Northern Wei's control, and although both Juqu Mujian's brother Juqu Wuhui and Tufa Baozhou (禿髮保周), a son of Southern Liang's last prince Tufa Rutan, would try to hold various parts of Northern Liang territory, by 440 Tufa Baozhou would be dead by suicide after failures, and by 441 Juqu Wuhui had fled to Gaochang. Northern China was now united under Emperor Taiwu's reign, ending the Sixteen Kingdoms era and starting the Southern and Northern Dynasties era. He continued to treat Juqu Mujian as a brother-in-law, and Juqu Mujian was allowed to continue carry the title of Prince of Hexi.