Feng Hong

Feng Ba, formally Wencheng, an emperor (but using the title "Heavenly Prince": Tian Wang) of the Chinese state Northern Yan, had become emperor after Gao Yun (Emperor Huiyi), whom he supported in a 407 coup that overthrew Murong Xi of Later Yan, was assassinated in 409.

During his reign, Northern Yan has largely maintained its territorial integrity but made no headway against the much stronger rival Northern Wei.

He is said to have had more than 100 sons.

In 426, Feng Ba's crown prince Feng Yong dies, and he creates another son, Feng Yi, crown prince.

Seriously ill in 430, Feng Ba issues an edict transferring authority to Feng Yi.

However, Feng Ba's favorite concubine Consort Song wants to have her son Feng Shouju inherit the throne, and therefore tells Feng Yi that Feng Ba will soon recover and that he should not be so anxious to take over authority; Feng Yi agrees and withdraws to his palace.

Consort Song then falsely issues orders in Feng Ba's name cutting off communications with the outside, and Feng Yi and Feng Ba's other sons, as well as imperial officials, are not allowed to see Feng Ba.

Only one of her trusted officials, Hu Fu, is able to enter the palace to be in charge of security.

However, Hu is secretly resentful of Consort Song's ambitions, and he informs Feng Ba’s brother Feng Hong, who is prime minister, of her intentions.

Feng Hong immediately attacks the palace and seizes control.

Feng Ba, hearing of this, dies in shock.

Feng Hong now takes the throne himself as Emperor Zhaocheng and, after defeating Feng Yi's troops, slaughters all of Feng Ba's sons.

The Northern Yan state is subject to incessant attacks by the neighboring rival Northern Wei, and becomes particularly true after Northern Wei annexes all of the territory of Xia in 431 and therefore no longer has a major western rival to deal with.

Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei makes periodic attacks to pillage Northern Yan territory and then withdraws, draining Northern Yan of food supplies and other resources and weakening it.

While Feng Hong had been the Duke of Zhongshan, his wife had been Lady Wang, who bore him at least three sons, Feng Chong, Feng Lang, and Feng Miao.

However, in 431, Feng Hong, now emperor, creates Lady Murong his princess instead.

Emperor Taiwu's generals, as he has instructed while on his Xia campaign, cross the Yellow River when it freezes in winter 430-31, and quickly recapture Luoyang and ...

...Hulao (in modern Zhengzhou, Henan).

They soon force the retreat of the main Liu Song force, under the command of the Liu Song general Dao Yanzhi, and ...

...trap the remaining Liu Song troops at Huatai (in modern Anyang, Henan).

A relief mission by the Liu Song general Tan Daoji can not reach Huatai, and by spring 431, Huatai falls.

All of the lands lost to Liu Song a year earlier have been regained. (Emperor Taiwu, in another action typical of him, rewards the Liu Song general Zhu Xiuzhi, who had held Huatai for months faithfully, by giving him a daughter of an imperial clan member in marriage.

Emperor Taiwu honors his wet nurse, Laby Dou, as “nurse empress dowager” in spring 432, starting what is to be a Northern Wei tradition,

According to this tradition, when a crown prince is named, his mother, if still alive, must be forced to commit suicide. (Some historians do not believe this to be a Tuoba traditional custom, but believe it to be a tradition instituted by the founding emperor Emperor Daowu based on Emperor Wu of Han's execution of his favorite concubine Consort Zhao, the mother of his youngest son Liu Fuling—the eventual Emperor Zhao—before naming Prince Fuling crown prince.)

As a result, because emperors would not have living mothers, they would often honor their wet nurses with the honorific title, "Nurse Empress Dowager."

Emperor Taiwu’s mother had died when he was twelve, two years before being named crown prince.

He also creates 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, with Xia destroyed, Emperor Taiwu, begins to attack Northern Yan in earnest.

In fall 432, he makes the first major attack on Northern Yan in Feng Hong's reign, heading for the Northern Yan capital Helong (in modern Jinzhou, Liaoning).

Feng Hong tries to appease the Northern Wei emperor by delivering gifts of beef and wine to his army but to no avail.

Ten Northern Yan prefectures surrender to Northern Wei, and Northern Wei forces capture a number of Northern Yan cities and put Helong under siege.

However, two months later, Emperor Taiwu withdraws at the start of winter, after capturing thirty thousand households from Northern Yan and relocating them to his You Province (modern Beijing, Tianjin, and northern Hebei).

Feng Hong's official Guo Yuan suggests to Feng Hong that he offer to be a Northern Wei vassal and send a daughter to be Emperor Taiwu's consort, but Feng Hong refuses, stating that the enmity between the states is so deep that he will be killed anyway even if he surrenders.

(While Northern Wei was investing Helong, the Northern Wei general Zhu Xiuzhi, who had been captured from Liu Song, plotted to assassinate Emperor Taiwu and then join Feng Hong, but his plot was discovered, and he flees to Feng Hong, who in turn sends him back to Liu Song, seeking Liu Song aid.

Henceforth, Liu Song and Northern Yan will be informal allies, although Liu Song will provide little actual help.)

Feng Lang and Feng Miao, believing that Northern Yan is on the verge of destruction in early winter 433, and believing that Princess Murong is planning to have them killed, flee to Liaoxi (in modern Tangshan, Hebei), where Feng Hong had sent their older brother Feng Chong to be the commanding general.

They persuade Feng Chong to surrender to Northern Wei, and Feng Chong sends Feng Miao to Northern Wei to offer his allegiance.

Feng Hong, in response, sends his general Feng Yu to put Liaoxi under siege.

In spring 433, Emperor Taiwu sens his younger brother Tuoba Jian, the Prince of Yongchang, to relieve Liaoxi, and further creates Feng Chong the Prince of Liaoxi with a number of other honors, including ten prefectures as his fief, to try to encourage other defectors.

Tuoba Jian's forces soon surround Feng Yu and force his surrender, then withdraw with three thousand captive households.

Feng Chong now requests permission to go to Helong to persuade Feng Hong to surrender, but Emperor Taiwu does not grant his request.

While Emperor Taiwu has Northern Liang on his mind while also concentrating on Northern Yan, but at the advice of his minister Li Shun, he decides to wait until the death of Northern Liang's long-time prince, Juqu Mengxun.

For the next few years, Emperor Taiwu will launch yearly attacks against Northern Yan with the same pattern, seeking to weaken Northern Yan gradually.

Murong Mugui, with promises of rewards in 433, turns Helian Ding over to Emperor Taiwu, and he has Helian Ding executed.

With the death in this year of Juqu Mengxun, Emperor Taiwu begins to consider conquering Northern Liang but initially continues to accept Juqu Mengxun's son Juqu Mujian as a vassal.

He takes Juqu Mujian's sister as an imperial consort.

Helian Chang, for reasons not now known, flees Pingcheng and apparently attempts to foment a rebellion in spring 434.

He is killed in battle, and Emperor Taiwu has Helian Chang's brothers put to death.

At the same time, after initially refusing a peace offer from Northern Yan, Emperor Taiwu accepts after Feng Hong offers his daughter as a consort and releases the Northern Wei ambassador Huniuyu Shimen, who had been imprisoned by Feng Hong's brother and predecessor Feng Ba in 414 after being commissioned by Emperor Mingyuan.

Emperor Taiwu, however, orders Feng Hong to also send his crown prince Feng Wangren to Pingcheng to meet him, and Feng Hong refuses, ending the brief peace, and by summer 434, Northern Wei resumes its periodic attacks on Northern Yan.

He again sends Tuoba Jian against Northern Yan, and Tuoba Jian seizes Northern Yan's crops and some of its people before withdrawing.

Meanwhile, around this time, he also takes the sister of the Rouran’s Chilian Khan Yujiulü Wuti as an imperial consort and, to further cement peaceful relations, marries his sister or cousin Princess Xihai to Yujiulü Wuti.

In fall 434, while attacking the Xiongnu rebel Bai Long, Emperor Taiwu, having underestimated the capabilities of Bai's forces, is nearly captured in an ambush; he is saved only by the efforts of his guard Houmochen Jian.

He subsequently defeats Bai and slaughters Bai's tribe.