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He systematically massacred the Jie(white huns, or Sogdians). During the Fragmentation age the 5 Hu entered the North China plains and set up a number of kingdoms. The most powerful was the Later Zhao of the Shi family which was Jie(white huns) in ethnicity. Ran Min was an adopted son of emperor Shi Hu. His origin was perhaps a Han peasant that was captured during war. But Qian Mu mentioned he might have hunnish blood as well. Despite been adopted by a Jie family. He had a hatred toward the people, and he managed to ursurp the Zhao throne in 350 A.D. and carry out a systematic extermination of all the jie in the North China plain and ordered that if they don't leave in a given time, all will be executed.
At the time the population of the Tanguts, Yue Shi, and Huns in Shan Xi was around 800,000. The xiongnu, Xianbei and Jie population of Shang Xi was another 800,000. Population of Hebei have some 900,000 Ding Lin and Xianbei.
Their population in He Nan and Shang Dong is less but probably no less than 300,000.
When Ran Min consolidated power, he started to campaign against all the other states. His base of southern He Bei, He Nan, Shan Xi, and Shang Dong already had many Non-Han inhabitants. He ordered all their massacre and it is said that even those Han people with slight hairy features were killed without trial. In just 1 day his armies killed tens of thousands of Jie. This ruthless massacre obviously forced the suffered Jie and Hunnish people to escape to the East and reestablished the independent kingdom of Zhao in He Bei with the capital of Xiang Guo with Shi Hu's son as emperor. Ran Min invaded Zhao with 3,000 cavalry and under a night attack destroyed the Hunnish encampment and killed 30,000 Zhao troops. He followed that with 5,000 cavalry and destroyed a Zhao cavalry of 70,000 through maneuvre. The other states are greatly alarmed and the Tanguts and Yue Shi allied the Zhao with a total 300,000 army to attack Ran Min. But Ran Ming manage to again rout that army with the 70,000 cavalry in addition to 40,000 newly recruited troop. The Zhao finally managed to defeat the invading army of Ran Min with the help of Murong Yan state of Xianbei in Manchuria. However this new Zhao kingdom became largely sinicized an under the influence of the Han officials so that the throne was ursurped by Liu who in turn submitted to Ran Min. This followed with his army massacring 400,000 white huns in Shouthern Shang Xi and He Bei and massacred over 320,000 inhabitants in that territory. Creating terror among the other states. Meanwhile in the east Ran Min again destroyed an allied army of over 100,000 of the Tangut and Yue Shi with only 60,000 army. He followed up with an attack on the allies with merely 2,000 newly created Han cavalry corps and further annihilated an army of 70,000 that arrived as reinforcement. The kingdom of Murong Yan was obviously alarmed and under general Murong Ge attacked Ran Min in He Bei with 140,000 soldier, yet they were utterly defeated by Ran Min in 10 separate battles. Ran Min massacred whereever he went and in all his terriotries, he have virtually wiped out all of the Hu regimes in central plain with the exception of Xianbei which is in too great of number.
But his success alarmed the Eastern Jin of south who started to built up army and captured Shan Dong and He Nan. And poised to take Shan Xi and He Bei as well. Ran Min was furious at the Jin's action and declared himself emperor of Wei. But it was a bad time for now he is surrounded on all sides by enemies and his troops have fought years of battle and the resource of his kingdom is mostly depleted with insufficient agricultural basis. Ran Min therefore raided the inhabitant in the Ding Zhou part of He Bei for supply with only 10,000 infantry. But he was too careless, and the Murong army herd of this and mobilized a large portion of their whole army numbering 200,000 and surrounded the region.
The Yan general Murong Ke finally manage to trap Ran Min's 10,000 infantry, and he formed encirclements on Ran Min's army and greatly outnumbered his. Although Rang Min's army is mostly infantry, all of them were highly disciplined troops trained and fought at his side since the begining. And although Ran Min is a butcher and tyrant he still love his troops so they would fight with him to the death. For this Murong Ke was repeatedly defeated by Ran Min's infantry since his infantry would just charge in formation at one point of the Yan cavalry always breaking the encirclement.
And over ten battles Murong Ke always failed to win. Murong Ke found out that the reason is Ran Min's infantry always goes through the gaps that result in his cavalry encirclement after it got hit by the force of Ran Min's infantry. So he ordered the horses tied together in chains to fill the gaps and also prevent the horses from running away.
Next morning, Murong Ke divided his army into 3 divisions and ordered the two left and right divisions to ambush on two sides. He created a large flag at the front of the central division which is a chained 5,000 elite horse-archers together in a square. Ran Min saw it and led the charge at the Yan army on his horse Zhu Long and wielding a lance in his left hand and a halberd with his right. His troops were so amazed and the soldiers were all inspired by Ran Min's courage and success and all shouted "Wang Sui"(may the emperor live ten thousand years) then Ran Min charged and broke the scattered the Yan front line cavalry killing 300. When the Wei infantry reached the Yan central division of the Chained cavalry. The wei army couldn't break through and never faced such tactic before was in panic. At this time the Yan cavalry from the two ambushed sides pincered the flank of the Wei, the Wei troops broke rank and fled, Ran Min rode his fast horse and manage to escape a far distance but his horse died from overexhaustion and he was captured. Thus the invincible Wei army which crushed the multiple collisions of the north and slaughtered countless nomads was finally brought to a close.
When Ran Ming was brought to Murong Jun, he was scolded,
"You are a subject of Zhao, how could you overthrow your emperor and declare yourself an emperor." Ran Min answered without shame "If barbarians like you could become emperor, then why can't a hero of the central plains like me become emperor"? Murong Jung was furious and ordered Ran Min beaten and locked up, later the rest of Wei is overran and Ran Min and his son was executed. Ending the Ran Wei and his reign of terror.
The Eastern Jin was so surprised that the invincible Ran Min was actually defeated and didn't believe it at first until sending an envoy to Yan and found out the truth.
In this massacre, Ran Min exterminated the Jie ethnicity, greatly finished the last of the Xiongnu (huns) in China, Xiongnu never became a great power again and only the small kingdom of Helian Bobo was xiongnu later. All together his armies have slaughtered over 2 million people and thats not counting the none civilians. It was the first mass instance of ethnic cleansing in the East Asian world. Where the slaughter is absolute.
This post has been edited by warhead: 04 June 2008 - 02:11 PM
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