Rebellion broke out among Yan State's armies, and not in just one place.
Apart from Murong Chui in Guanzhong, who had risen unexpectedly and had little connection to Yan State, there were several principal military forces within Yan.
The first was naturally the emperor's Imperial Guards. These were the finest troops, the very army that had destroyed Han State together with Liang State, and the same force now confronting Murong Chui.
This army was the most loyal to the emperor, with both Hu and Han among its ranks. Yan State had a tradition of appointing Hu commanders to lead the Imperial Guards. Within the guards, the Imperial Clan, Maternal Relatives, and Hu people usually formed three balancing powers. The first two needed no explanation. The last had no foundations within the country and could only depend on the emperor, making them the easiest to control-a different approach achieving the same effect as eunuchs.
Beyond the Imperial Guards were the various regional armies, such as Murong Ke's former Taiyuan army. But most of these armies depended on their lords. For instance, after Murong Ke died and the Kingdom of Taiyuan was abolished, its army was disbanded along with it. Similar to the kingdom armies were the private troops held by the Aristocratic Gentry Clans. Taken together, they could not be underestimated.
Beyond these, Yan State also had an easily overlooked army: the troops guarding its northern frontier. These forces were somewhat similar to the Tuntian Soldiers.
These armies predated the Murong Yan State. Their military strongholds had been established to resist the Hu when Yan had only just completed its migration back to the Central Plains.
Later, after the Hu of the Grasslands were subdued, Murong Chengguang moved these military strongholds north to the Southern Desert grasslands. They stretched from west