The leaders of the small tribes still had a clear idea of whether to follow Shen Chen or follow Mang Zhongzhuyi to rebel.
Now Liu Bei ascended the throne in the south. He kept fighting Cao Cao in Liangzhou, and finally drove Cao Cao back, occupied Liangzhou, and became the master of Liangzhou.
After that, more than 10,000 cavalry from Liu Bei's group were stationed in Xiliang. Zhang Fei transferred them south, but these cavalry did not follow him. Now they are all under Shen Chen's command and guard all parts of Liangzhou.
In addition to more than 10,000 cavalry, Liangzhou also had more than 20,000 infantry.
The origin of these infantry was the Qiang Di tribe in Wudu that had taken refuge with Liu Bei. Although they were not strong in combat and were defeated by Cao Cao in one battle, they were numerous and powerful, so they were of some use.
After that, Liu Bei rewarded the leaders of various Qiang and Di tribes, such as Lei Ding, Dou Mao, Agui, Yang Ju, Fu Jian and others. Like the Qian army in Bajun, he selected the best young men among them to join the army and trained soldiers in Liangzhou. Gradually it was effective.
Therefore, Liangzhou's current total military strength is probably less than 40,000, including 12,000 cavalry and 26,000 infantry. Although the infantry is not as elite as the southern and northern elites, it is enough to suppress any rebellion in Liangzhou.
In this case, Shaodang Wang Mangzhong and Zhuyi suddenly launched a rebellion, and the government had no time to mobilize troops. Shen Chen asked these small tribes to send troops to follow him to put down the rebellion. Although the number of troops was not large, for the sake of future and wealth , they are naturally willing to take a gamble.
Anyway, in their understanding, the Han Dynasty army was powerful. Even if Shen Chen failed, it would be okay if they did not destroy Mangzhong and Zhuyi immediately. Afterwards, the Han army would be able to easily eliminate them when they came over.
They chose to join Shen Chen, and they would naturally be rewarded afterwards. In the end, it was much better than following Mang Zhong Zhuyi to rebel and then being wiped out by the Han army.
As for Shen Chen, it was to prevent the situation from getting worse and causing a chain reaction, so he acted first.
The Qiang people in Liangzhou either did not rebel. Once they rebelled, the impact would be very great. Like the first Qiang rebellion, millions of Qiang Di and Beihu people in Liangzhou were implicated. The Eastern Han Dynasty spent 24 billion on military expenditures, and then they reluctantly calm.
Although the scale of the second Qiang Rebellion was not as large as the first, it lasted for a long time. It lasted for thirty or forty years from Emperor Shun of the Han Dynasty to Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty, and its impact was also very bad.
Later, during the period of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, Beigong Boyu, Li Wenhou and others rebelled. Han Sui and Ma Teng joined them. The scale of the Qiang rebellion involved reached more than 100,000 people. They often invaded the three auxiliary areas in Guanzhong, giving Guanzhong brought huge disasters.
The same is true with the current situation.
Shen Chen probably understood the reason why Mang Zhong and Zhu Yi wanted to launch a rebellion.
Because the current new policy is that the imperial court hopes that the Qiang and Di will submit, obey, and submit voluntarily, the imperial court will send officials to govern them.
Of course the small tribes are willing, so with the support of the imperial court, they will not be bullied and annexed by the big tribes.
But those big tribes were used to being arrogant in Liangzhou, and naturally they didn't want to have an additional administrator. Therefore, they had to launch a rebellion and drive Shen Chen out of Xiliang.
They contacted other Qiang tribes everywhere, hoping to start a large-scale rebellion again.
There is even some trace of Cao Wei in it.
Cao Wei now has many Liangzhou officials, such as Yang Fu, Jiang Xu, Jiang Yin, Zhao Ang, Yin Feng, Yao Qiong, Kong Xin and others who drove Ma Chao out of Xiliang. Now they are officials in Cao Wei, and they are even called He was granted the title of Lieutenant.
Han Sui's son-in-law and general Yan Xing also defected to Cao Cao. After Cao Cao drove Han Sui out of Guanzhong, he immediately launched a rebellion, forcing Han Sui to leave Jincheng County. Finally, with the help of Yan Xing Next, Cao Cao obtained Tianshui, Longyou, Anding and other counties, and confronted Liu Bei in Wudu County and other places.
Therefore, the influence of Cao Wei's forces in Liangzhou is still very large. However, Liu Bei's army entered Liangzhou in the early days, and Zhang Fei's two years of guarding were mainly suppressed by force. The Qiang people worship the strong, so under Zhang Fei's suppression Next, they dare not resist.
Now that Shen Chen came over, at first he didn't dare to do anything because Shen Chen was well-known in the south.
However, in the past six months, Shen Chen has adopted a moderate policy that treats Yi and Han colleagues. Although they do not know that this is a policy of ethnic integration that is like boiling water, they know that the other party is slowly dividing the Qiang and Di, wooing small Qiang and Di tribes, and forcing them to The large Qiang and Di tribes submitted to Liu Bei's court in the south.
Therefore, under the influence of Cao Wei's Liangzhou officials, it was natural to launch a rebellion.
And Shen Chen did not go back immediately to mobilize the army to quell the rebellion.
He is in Jincheng County now. Even if he rushes hard, it will take at least ten days and a half to return to Tianshui County.
It may take two or three months to mobilize a large army to put down the rebellion.
At this time, Mangzhong and Zhuyi were constantly contacting the surrounding Qiang and Di tribes. After two or three months, a large number of Qiang and Di tribes were likely to be incited by them and join them.
If we delay for two or three months to put down their rebellion, the enemy may not be thirty or forty thousand, but hundreds of thousands.
So at this time, since I happened to be lobbying the local Qiang leaders in a small tribe in Xihan, I might as well simply raid Dayun Mountain and go straight to the enemy's hinterland.
That night, Shen Chen ordered the Anyi County magistrate to go back and immediately dispatched county soldiers to join him in Xihan.
When it was daytime on the second and third days, the leaders of the surrounding small tribes from Xihan, Donghan and other places came one after another with their troops and horses. There were seven or eight thousand people, plus two thousand soldiers from Jincheng County. , about ten thousand people have already arrived.
The Qiang people each carried dry food and war horses, and the weapons they used were relatively simple cast iron weapons. Only the more than one hundred personal guards brought by Shen Chen had steel weapons, and the county soldiers used wrought iron weapons.
But this does not hinder Shen Chen's determination to capture the king in one fell swoop.
After Shen Chen gave an order, the Qiang Di people howled like wolves and headed west toward Dayun Mountain.
Dayun Mountain is located in Guide County, Qinghai in later generations. At that time, Guide County was also known as Dayun Valley, and together with Yu Valley in the northwest of Jianzha County, it was the main gathering place of the Shaodang Qiang people.
This place is bounded by Riyue Mountain, a branch of the Qilian Mountains, to the north, and Qinghai Lake to the northwest. The upper reaches of the Qinghai part of the Yellow River pass through here, nourishing the earth and making the vast hills burst with vitality. The grasslands all over the mountains and plains have nurtured countless Qiang and Di people.
There is even a large basin further south, which later became the Huangshatou Desert in Guinan County, Qinghai Province. Desertification was not that serious during the Han Dynasty, and it was one of the most important pastures for the Qiang and Di people.
But precisely because of such unique conditions, the leader of the Shaodang Qiang people decided to launch a rebellion and become the enemy of Liu Bei's court.
At this time, Shen Chen put on a Qiang Di costume, with disheveled hair, pretending to be a Qiang. The skin of the Qiang people is slightly darker than that of the Han people, showing a wheat color exposed to the sun all year round, somewhat like the Tibetans of later generations.
However, in recent years, Qiang and Di have intermarried with Han people, so there are still many Qiang and Di people who look like Han people. As long as they are slightly disguised, their identity cannot be identified.
He was sitting on a horse, and the white jade horse was galloping. There were only a few trees growing on the rolling hills and mountains in the distance, most of which were vast grasslands. Farther away, there were peaks that penetrated into the clouds and reached an altitude of more than four or five thousand meters. , the top is dyed white, which is the top of the snow peak.
The team went west and crossed countless hills and hills. Along the way, they could see many Qiang tribes, large and small, also rushing there. After sending people to inquire, they found out that many of them were forced to send soldiers to participate in the alliance.
Mangzhong and Zhuyi also knew that their two large tribes would definitely not be able to achieve their goals, so they threatened the surrounding small and medium-sized tribes to join in to increase the number of soldiers and the scale of the rebellion. If they did not comply, they would be slaughtered.
This made many small and medium-sized tribes have no choice but to join them and go to Dayun Mountain to form an alliance with Mangzhong and Zhuyi even if they did not want to be enemies of Liu Bei's court.
Shen Chen ignored these small and medium-sized tribes.
Because he knows that these people are not of the same mind as Mangzhong Zhuyi, and since they are not enemies, there is no need to worry about them.
A few days later, they arrived at Yugu, which was the territory designated by King Qiang. He had already led people to Dayun Mountain, but he also left people in Yugu to guide other small and medium-sized tribes to Dayun Mountain. Join them.
The reason why they want to go to Dayun Mountain is because there is a road to the north of Dayun Mountain that leads directly to Linqiang County and Anyi County. They plan to occupy Jincheng County first and then spread the war to the entire Liangzhou.
Under the guidance of the Yugu Shaodang Qiang, they continued walking along the Yellow River.
Shen Chen even saw Guiyi City and Jianwei City on the north bank of the Yellow River a few days later. Both of these cities were built during the Han Dynasty to suppress the local rebel Shaodang Qiang.
But now times have changed, and the imperial court's control over Liangzhou has become increasingly weak, so that the two cities have been acquired by the Qiang people. Although the Qiang people do not know how to build cities, and the city made of rammed earth is close to ruin, but looking across the bank from a distance, you can see the capital outside the city. It's Qiang Di, which inevitably makes people feel uncomfortable.
"After I am defeated and become a Qiang, I will set up a county here and station troops and horses to manage the Qiang!"
Shen Chen said to the two disciples on his left and right, Deng Ai and Jiang Wei.
Jiang Wei said: "Master, this place is located in the upper reaches of the river. Although the water and grass are luxuriant, the land is fertile, it is good for farm animals, and it is profitable for fish and salt. However, the river is fast and the roads are inconvenient. There are also many Qiang and Di people, so it is not suitable for Han people to live. I am afraid it will not be suitable for Han people to live. It’s good to be stationed for a long time.”
"It doesn't matter."
Shen Chen waved his hands and said: "It is true that this place is too far away from our control area and the roads are not easy to travel, but in the future we can appoint Qiang Di who are loyal to the court as officials and carry out systematic governance. The barbarians outside the Great Wall are used to being lazy and will rebel if they want to. , they will have to pay the price of rebellion."
Deng Ai smiled and said: "It's Shijun's reputation that only spreads in the Central Plains. Cao Wei already knows how powerful Shijun is. But after Shijun arrived in Liangzhou, he was too gentle to them. He even sat at the same table with them many times regardless of his status and let them I thought your master’s reputation was nothing more than this.”
"Yes, Master."
Shan Yi also made a loud noise and said: "Look at Uncle Yide. During the two years in Liangzhou, there were those who disobeyed the king's transformation. He immediately sent troops to conquer and personally killed countless Qiang and Di leaders. He was so powerful in Xiliang. They just wanted to see the king's favor. Bully."
"hehe."
Shen Chen smiled and said: "If that's the case, then it's time for my name to spread across the border. Send the order and speed up the journey. We must reach Dayun Mountain tomorrow."
"only."
Several people immediately conveyed the military order.
Since the Qiang and Di tribe's army was not organized, Wu Lala would only rush forward when fighting, so Shen Chen ordered two thousand county soldiers to disperse among them and lead each tribe to obey orders.
For example, there are 500 Han soldiers for every 2,000 people. Each tribe breaks up and reorganizes. There are 400 Qiang and 100 Han soldiers. This is divided into four large formations and 20 small formations. Once the war starts, the remaining Qiang and Di will It is enough to follow the orders of the Han soldiers and generals in your headquarters.
Soon the military order was issued, and all the ministries blew their whistles to speed up the pace.
The Qiang Di also used bone whistles and horns as tools to convey orders, and even the bone whistles and horns themselves were their traditional ways of conveying orders. The Han people's traditional way of conveying orders was gongs, drums and flags, and the whistles and horns were learned from the Qiang Di, so the Qiang Di naturally Understand these commands.
After the military order was conveyed, all ministries accelerated their pace.
On the morning of the next day, they arrived at Dayun Mountain, and saw that this mountain was the Laji Mountains in the north of Guide County. The Dayun Valley was located at the foot of the mountain, with a large rift valley extending along both sides of the Yellow River, showing a A long and narrow plain area.
Many counties in Liangzhou are located in such rift valleys, and even many counties in Gansu and Qinghai in later generations were built in this way, often on both sides of the upper reaches of the Yellow River, Weishui River, Huangshui River and Taoshui River.
Shen Chen glanced around on horseback and saw lush water and grass on both sides of the river, a large number of tents set up by the river, and groups of cattle, sheep and horses running on the grass.
Countless Qiang and Di are gathering here like a river, and temporary camps are being built further to the south.
The old Qiang commander's name is Guduo, and he also belongs to the Shaodang Qiang branch.
At this moment, he hurried over on horseback and reported to Shen Chenhui: "Grand Governor, they asked us to place the tribesmen on the grassland in the south, and then only ordered the leaders to go to the meeting."
"Where will their meeting be?"
Shen Chen asked.
Guduo pointed to a huge Qiang and Di camp by the Yellow River and said: "That is the tribal land in Mangzhong, and the largest tent in the middle is the royal tent in Mangzhong."
Shen Chen said: "Don't worry about anything else. You follow me towards that direction and follow my orders."
"yes."
Guduo immediately returned to his tribe.
Shen Chen roared, urging the horses forward, down the hillside, towards Mangzhong's camp.
There were tens of thousands of people on their side, and there were Mangzhong Qiang soldiers on the outside to maintain order, guiding the rest of the tribes who came to join the alliance to the south to station themselves in temporary camps.
When they first passed by, the Qiang soldiers responsible for guiding them thought they were going to the garrison, so they took the initiative to greet them and lead them the way.
But as they walked, they realized something was wrong, because the other party did not go south, but kept going west, towards the main camp.
The Qiang soldier leading the way couldn't help but say in Qiang language: "Gulu gulu gulu gulu."
In fact, due to the mixed population of Hu and Han in Liangzhou, most Qiang leaders can speak Chinese, but the lower class Qiang people naturally cannot, so Shen Chen does not need to learn Qiang to communicate with the Qiang people.
However, hearing that the Qiang man's tone seemed to be a bit scolding, he immediately became a little unhappy.
The Qiang leader next to him whispered to him and translated: "He said that is where the respected Qiang King resides. We untouchables from low-level tribes are not allowed to go there. Only the leader can go to the king's tent."
"Pfft."
Shen Chen suddenly laughed and said to his left and right: "Who can Mang Zhong and Zhu Yi deserve to call themselves the respected Qiang King?"
After saying that, he pulled out his tiger gallbladder and slashed at the Qiang man with one blow, killing him with one blow.
The remaining Qiang soldiers leading the way were stunned.
However, Jiang Wei, Deng Ai, Shan Yi, Wu Dang and other disciples reacted very quickly and drew their swords at the same time, killing several of them one after another.
Shen Chen raised the tiger's guts knife in his hand, pointed forward, and roared: "My sons, today is the day to make a great contribution. Follow me and kill the two traitors Mang Zhong and Zhu Yi!"
"kill!"
The Han soldiers around Shen Chen roared at the same time.
Then the horn sounded.
Everyone pulled out the knives from their waists, clamped their legs tightly on the horse's belly, slapped the horse's buttocks, howled like wild wolves, and headed toward the camp in Mangzhong to the west.
The movement here quickly attracted the attention of the Mangzhong camp in the distance, and the Qiang and Di who came to join the alliance from all along the way scattered and fled.
On the other side of the Mangzhong camp, the two Qiang kings Mangzhong and Zhuyi were entertaining the other Qiang leaders who came to join the alliance in a tent. Suddenly they heard horns and whistles outside the camp. They were shocked and ran out of the tent in a hurry.
Seeing that there was chaos in the village at this time, and hearing that there was an enemy attack, the two men immediately summoned their soldiers and hurriedly issued the order to assemble. At the same time, they took a small number of soldiers and horses and hurried out of the camp to stop them.
It's not that they don't want to defend the camp, but the Qiang and Di tribes don't know how to set up camp like the Han camp. Their perimeter is at most a low fence with a circle of sheep, which is only as high as a person's waist. The cavalry can break through it with a single charge and cannot stop them at all. .
Just like the grassland tribes, once a large enemy force enters the tent camp, it will be easily defeated and massacred without resistance.
Therefore, both of them hoped to organize troops and horses as soon as possible to stop the enemy outside the camp.
However, it was too late to gather troops in a hurry. When they hurriedly led thousands of people out of the camp and before they had time to form a formation, Shen Chen had already led tens of thousands of cavalry to kill them.
They saw Shen Chen taking the lead and rushing into the formation, killing them like a tiger entering a flock of sheep. In an instant, several people fell under his sword.
After that, the two sides collided together like a flood, causing people to overturn and chaos to form.
In the chaos, under the cover of Jiang Wei, Deng Ai, Shan Yi, Wu Dang and other disciples with outstanding martial arts skills, Shen Chen waved around and kept slashing, and soon fought his way out and encountered an enemy general in front.
The man was surrounded by dozens of cavalry guards and was at the rear of the battle formation. Suddenly he saw more than ten enemies coming in. He shouted and immediately rushed over with his men.
“Just in time!”
Shen Chen shouted loudly, clamped his legs around the Jade Luo Horse, and grabbed the tiger daring sword in his hand first. The horse stood up, and he slashed at the enemy general with the sword at his head.
The Qiang and Di's iron tools and weapons are far inferior to those of the Han people, and they are not as wealthy as the Han people. They have so much iron to make long weapons, so their weapons are often short knives three or four feet long.
As for Shen Chen's Tiger Blade, which was seven feet long, he took advantage of the length of the weapon. Before the enemy's sword could reach him, he slashed through it first.
The enemy general has no choice but to block with his sword.
"boom!"
With a soft and crisp sound, and with terrifying force, Shen Chen split the enemy general's sword into two pieces with one strike. The sword's momentum did not change and he slashed all the way down.
Immediately afterwards, a "pop" sound was heard, and the Tiger Blade slashed downwards, cutting off half of the enemy general's head.
Poof!
Because his head fell off, the blood in his neck spurted out, and the head of the enemy general's leader was lifted half a foot high and fell to the ground.
When the man died, the Qiang people around him were instantly frightened.
Someone shouted in Qiang language.
Then countless Qiang people shouted, as if they had seen a ghost. They looked at Shen Chen in fear, then turned their horses and ran away.
Even before they had just started fighting, some of the Qiang soldiers had already fled and did not dare to fight again before the main force of the army behind them started fighting the enemy head-on.
Immediately afterwards, the main force arrived and surrounded and killed the enemy. Another enemy general died among the rebels, and the war soon subsided.
A large number of Qiang and Di birds and beasts dispersed, and the battlefield suddenly became silent.
Only then did Shen Chen know that he was among the rebels and had killed Mang Zhong, one of the Qiang kings!