Chile Song

Folk Songs of the Northern Dynasties

Chilechuan, at the foot of Yinshan Mountain,

The sky is like a dome of a house, covering the surrounding fields.

The sky is green and the fields are vast.

The wind blows the grass and you can see cattle and sheep.

"Chile Song" is a folk song from the Northern Dynasties, which is included in the "Collection of Yuefu Poems" compiled by the Northern Song Dynasty writer Guo Maoqian. Guo Maoqian believes that "Chile Song" was originally sung in Xianbei language and was later translated into Chinese, so the sentences vary in length.

This nomadic folk song, which describes the vastness and majesty of the northern grasslands, entered the official books due to a little-known extremely tragic and tragic war and has been passed down to this day.

01

The Battle of Yubi

In the late autumn of 546 AD (the fourth year of Emperor Xiaojing’s reign in the Eastern Wei Dynasty), Gao Huan, the prime minister of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, had a strong desire to unify the north. Once again, he personally led an army of 100,000 people from Jinyang (in today's Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province) to attack southward the Western Wei Dynasty's border fortress Yubi City (today's southwest of Jishan, Shanxi Province). ?

The setting sun is like blood, shining slantingly on the whimpering Yellow River. The autumn wind rustles and rolls up the withered yellow leaves all over the ground, making the world desolate.

Outside Yubi City, Gao Huan was discussing the plan to attack the city with the leaders of each battalion in the tent.

Gao Huan was a Cao Cao-like figure. He was highly respected, knew people well, and was adept at military affairs. His son Gao Yang learned from Cao Pi and established himself on behalf of the Han Dynasty. He deposed the Eastern Wei emperor and established the Northern Qi Dynasty. He followed Gao Huan as a military sacrifice. Emperor (later renamed Emperor Shenwu).

In Yubi City, Wei Xiaokuan, the governor of Jinzhou in the Western Wei Dynasty, was discussing strategies to defend against the enemy with his soldiers. They decided to hold on to the city fort and wait for work.

Wei Xiaokuan was full of strategies and good at adapting to changes. He was also an outstanding general in Chinese history. "Northern History" records that Wei Xiaokuan's spies were placed among the imaginary enemies he considered, and these spies were loyal and never had second thoughts. No one could match Wei Xiaokuan's intelligence warfare capabilities.

This time he led his troops to defend Yubi City to the death, defeating Gao Huan's main force, which indirectly led to the decline of the Eastern Wei (later the Northern Qi), and later used counterinsurgency tactics to kill the Northern Qi's top general Zhu. The important minister Hu Luguang (son of Hu Lüjin) directly led to the demise of the Northern Qi Dynasty.

The Yubi City is eight miles in circumference and is surrounded by deep valleys on all sides. The terrain is dangerous and easy to defend but difficult to attack. The two masters staged a peak showdown of wits and courage. In this battle, Wei Xiaokuan is destined to become Gao Huan's nemesis. ?

Building mountains of earth to break the city wall VS tying trees to high ground to resist the enemy

Since there is no water source in the Yubi City, the people in the city can only draw water from the Fen River outside the city. Gao Huan saw this weakness of the opponent, and based on the principle of low investment and high return, he adopted the tactic of "drawing money from the bottom of the cauldron" and sent people to cut off the water in the upper reaches of the Fen River overnight, so that the Fen River water would be far away from Yubi City, completely cutting off the flow of water in the city. water source.

I have to say that Gao Huan's move is indeed brilliant, and he can defeat the enemy without fighting. It's a pity that Wei Xiaokuan didn't accept this trick, and Gao Huan was so angry that he blew his beard and stared.

Gao Huan used the clever trick of "launching infrastructure" again and sent people to build a mountain of earth to the south of Yubi City, hoping to use this mountain of earth to invade the city. Unexpectedly, Wei Xiaokuan turned out to be an infrastructure maniac. He used wood as raw materials to increase the height of the original city tower, so that the earth mountain could never be higher than Yubi City. This move made the soldiers of the Eastern Wei Dynasty who were tired of transporting earth into a trap. "despair".

?

Dig tunnels directly into the city vs. light fires and blowers to roast the soldiers?

Gao Huan also felt the despair of the soldiers, since this siege plan could not work. , then try another method: dig dozens of tunnels leading directly into Yubi City.

Gao Huan sent a team of "groundhogs" to dig ten tunnels, and used the sorcerer Li Yexing's "Guxu method (roughly understood as attacking the enemy's weak points)" to mobilize men and horses to attack Yu. North of the walled city.

Wei Xiaokuan had long guessed that Gao Huan would dig tunnels to attack the city. So he ordered people to dig a long ditch and used it to intercept the "groundhogs" sent by Gao Huan. Then a group of "whack-a-mole" players were gathered and stationed on the ditch. Whenever a "groundhog" came through the tunnel and came to the ditch, these players could easily eliminate these "groundhogs". ".

What's even more amazing is that Wei Xiaokuan asked people to pile up a lot of firewood outside the ditch and prepared some kindling. Once a "groundhog" appeared in the tunnel, he would stuff the firewood into the tunnel and throw the kindling. Once inside, once the wind and fire were blown, all the "groundhogs" in the tunnel turned into "roasted gophers".

Powerful siege vehicles VS ordinary curtains?

After Gao Huan couldn’t get up (the mountain) and get down (the tunnel), he showed his trump card—— The nemesis of the city wall, the "black technology" of ancient chariots, and the "Big Mac" siege vehicle. This kind of chariot is covered with iron sheets, making it indestructible and extremely destructive. Wei Xiaokuan initially set up many roadblocks (large wooden stakes) outside the city gate. Unfortunately, these roadblocks did not stop the crazy siege engines.

Wei Xiaokuan then adopted the tactic of overcoming strength with softness and asked the soldiers to sew the cloth into a large curtain. Wherever the siege vehicles attacked, the cloth was set up.

Because the cloth was suspended in the air, the siege vehicles could not destroy it. The arrogant chariots immediately stopped.

Gao Huan also ordered the soldiers to tie flammable objects such as pine branches and hemp poles to a long pole in front of the car, dip them in anointing oil and light a fire to burn the curtains in an attempt to destroy the jade wall. The towers were burned together.

Wei Xiaokuan made a long hook knife and sharpened the blade. When the fire pole was about to burn the curtain, he used the long hook knife to cut it from a distance. The pine branches and hemp poles attached to the fire pole fell to the ground one after another.

When Gao Huan's plan failed, he tried another one. He ordered people to dig 20 tunnels under the four walls of Yubi City, and used wooden pillars in the tunnels to support the walls on the ground, and then set fire to the wooden pillars. Gao Huan easily burned down a section of the city wall using this method. The collapse of the city wall allowed him to see the dawn of victory.

Hundreds of thousands of people took turns to attack, but Wei Xiaokuan not only blocked it, but also took some time to direct the engineering troops to repair the collapsed city wall.

At this point, the Eastern Wei army had been fighting hard for more than fifty days. All methods had been exhausted, with 70,000 casualties and 70,000 casualties, but they still could not capture Yubi City, which was garrisoned by only a few thousand people.

Gao Huan saw that Yubi City could not be captured for a long time, and the soldiers were seriously injured and killed. At this time, a very large meteorite happened to fall in Gao Huan's military camp. There was chaos in the camp. The soldiers were extremely frightened, thinking that God was going to punish them.

Gao Huan had no choice but to order the siege to stop and recuperate, waiting for the opportunity. At this time, despair and sadness shrouded the sky like dark clouds over the military camp. The soldiers were distracted and the hearts of the people were agitated.

The scheming Wei Xiaokuan saw that Gao Huan had not sent troops to attack the city in the past few days, so he sent spies to sneak into Gao Huan's camp. After finding out that Gao Huan was bedridden, he took the opportunity to spread rumors that Gao Huan had been captured. He shot him to death, and made up a jingle for the soldiers to sing to shake the opponent's military morale:

Gao Huan, the rat, personally violated the jade wall.

With one shot of the sword and crossbow, the culprit killed himself.

When Gao Huan heard this song, he vomited blood and almost died of anger. He thought that if he lay down any longer, the morale of the army would be weakened. He must immediately patrol each military camp to let the soldiers know that he was in good health, so that the rumors would be self-defeating.

He was sick and touring the camp. Wherever he went, there was joy, and his morale was greatly boosted. Ginger was still too spicy, so he held a banquet to comfort the soldiers. While eating barbecue, he frequently asked the soldiers to drink.

After three rounds of wine, the five flavors of food are gone. Gao Huan saw that the soldiers were all gearing up and in high spirits, and said happily: "It's a pity that there is wine but no singing! Today, General Hu Lujin will sing a song for everyone to cheer up."

< p> Hu Lujin is from the Chile ethnic group (the main member of the Uyghur ethnic group in Xinjiang). He didn’t read much since he was a child and couldn’t even write his own name. His original name was "Dun". He felt that there were too many strokes and it was not good. He simply changed it to "金", but it was still very difficult to write. Someone gave him an idea and said that the word "金" looks like a house, so you can just draw it according to the shape of the house. Only then did he learn to write his own name.

Although Hu Lujin was illiterate in Douda, he was a powerful general in the north and was known as the "God of War". He is brave, resourceful, and good at fighting, and he also has the super power of precise positioning. When the two armies were fighting, he only had to look at the flying dust in the distance to know how far the horses were from him. Lying on the ground, he could judge the number of the opponent's horses and the distance between the two armies from the sounds coming from the ground. With these skills, he won the appreciation of Gao Huan. Gao Huan once warned his son Gao Deng many times: "Most of your subordinates are Han people. If someone puts small shoes on Hu Lujin and makes it a stumbling block, you must not believe it!"

Hu Lujin Worthy of being the king of karaoke, he used his wolf-like voice (Chile people are good at making people sing long songs, and they also sound like wolves howling.), and sang a Chile folk song that he has loved to sing since he was a child:

Chile River, at the foot of Yinshan Mountain,

The sky is like a dome, covering the surrounding fields.

The sky is green and the fields are vast.

The wind blows the grass and you can see cattle and sheep.

With this "heartfelt" song, Hu Lujin aroused the homesickness of the soldiers of Chilechuan and triggered a scream. All the soldiers, including Gao Huan, burst into tears and expressed emotions. They were so excited that they couldn't help but sing along in unison. For a time, the heroic, rough, and loud chorus spread throughout the military camps, stirring the entire battlefield...

After all, Gao Huan could not return to his beloved Chile River. Half a year later, Gao Huan was "buried in vain to the west of Zhang River. He dug a cave next to the Celestial Palace in Gushan Grottoes, took his coffin and stuffed it..."?

02

Literature Achievements

"Chile Song" is a natural work without any refinement, and has been highly praised by later commentators.

Later generations praised this poem as "the best song of Yuefu" (Wang Shizhen's "Yuyang Poetry") and "the crown of Yuefu at that time" (Wang Shizhen's "Yiyuan Yan"). Poetry critic Hu Yinglin once said that this poem The poem "has the character of Han and Wei Dynasties".

"Chile Song" was first seen in "Book of Northern Qi" written by Li Baiyao of the Tang Dynasty. Another historian of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yanshou, also recorded "Chile Song" when he was compiling "History of the North". It can be seen that "Chile Song" has enjoyed a high status in the Tang Dynasty, which is known as the "era of poetry" and "the country of poetry".

Influenced by "Chile Song", many poets in the Tang Dynasty wrote poems praising the Chile River, such as "The Resentment of Zhaojun" by Li Bai and "Out of the Fortress" by Wang Changling.

There is also Wen Tingyun, who was called "Wen Bacha" by the Tang Dynasty because of his talent. He even wrote a special song "Chile Song Saibei".

In the Song Dynasty, Sima Guang also had a special record of "Chile Song" in his "Zizhi Tongjian" compiled by him (Volume 159 "Liang Ji Fifteen").

Wang Shizhen, a writer in the Ming Dynasty and leader of the "Later Seven Sons", also wrote the "Chile Song" of the same name. Even Lin Zexu, a native of Guangdong, wrote a poem: "The Jia song is passed down under the fort, and the sword at the top of the building is connected to Kongtong."

Tuoba Xianbei's descendant Yuan Haowen's "On Thirty Poems·Part 7" has the highest evaluation and most vivid expression of "Cele Song":

The ballad of generosity will never be passed down ,

Qionglu is all natural.

The eternal heroic spirit of Zhongzhou,

also went to the Chile River in Yinshan Mountain.