During the most prosperous period of Emperor Shun (AD 140), there were only more than 5,000 households and more than 29,000 people.
After experiencing the Qiang chaos during the reign of Emperor Ling, the number of living people was reduced to less than ten.
The land at the head of the river is separated by the Daxia River into the three counties of Wuhan, Baishi and Heguan in the northwest, and few Han family members have settled there.
Later, General Yi from Huangzhong led Song Jian, who was born in Heguan, to join the gang of bandits in Heguan. He gathered all the Han family members in Fuhan County and set up a hundred officials to call him king. However, he was slaughtered by Xia Houyuan. From then on, the Han family members were hard to find.
This was the biggest reason why both the Han and Wei dynasties temporarily tolerated Tang Fan's existence.
No matter which side captures the land at the head of the river, the gains outweigh the losses for the current situation.
Without the Han people to take root and settle down, it would be difficult for the garrison soldiers who maintained order to obtain supplies such as food and fodder on the spot. They had to rely on the counties in the rear to provide supplies. After all, this was not a long-term thing.
It's just Tang Fan. With the strength of both Han and Wei, he couldn't be killed in one fell swoop.
The difficulty lies in how to stabilize the head of the river.
After all, after destroying Tang Fan, the Qiang people in the river head area could not be killed, and the root cause of another rebellion could not be eradicated.
When the Central Plains dynasties were unable to expand to the outside world and did not have enough people to migrate to the border areas, they would fall into an endless cycle of "pacifying the borders". They would kill the rebels and support the obedient ones; when the obedient ones became stronger, they would develop a disobedient heart.
Then the soldiers will come again to attack.
It goes round and round, endlessly reincarnation.
The former Han Dynasty was dragged down by the Qiang Rebellion in the Northwest that lasted for more than a hundred years.
Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, who had witnessed all this, naturally did not want to make the same mistake again given the fact that the population of Bashu was not large.
With the mentality of giving it a try, he agreed to bring up Zheng Pu's old plan again.
During the autumn harvest last year, Zheng Pu, who was stationed in Lintao, sent people to instigate a war between the Shaodang Qiang and the Shenlang Qiang, so that they would wear out each other so that the Han people would have no worries.
And it can reap the benefits of being a fisherman.
It's just that at that time, the prime minister decided to make a new decision in Longyou, fearing that extraneous branches would cause turmoil, so he refused to adopt it.
Now that Tang Fan at the head of the river has merged with Wei Wei, the prime minister no longer has such concerns, and if the plan proposed by Zheng Pu can be carried out smoothly, it will be of great benefit to the Han Dynasty.
The first is to feed war with war.
More than a thousand cavalry under Ma Dai came to aid Xiliang. From the beginning of the formation of the army, they were mixed with Hu, Qiang, Di and Han people.
He is very good at harassing borders and looting materials for supplies.
Send him to the land at the head of the river to fight against the enemy and feed himself with the enemy's funds. There is no need to worry about how much food, fodder and baggage the court will consume.
Moreover, Ma Dai's Xiliang cavalry had not experienced war for a long time, so they used Heshou Tang Fan as a sharpening sword and a preparation for the future expedition to Liangzhou.
Furthermore, it has been a long-standing tradition of the Han Dynasty to attack the Qiang and Hu from the northwest, use their cattle and sheep to support farming, punish prisoners of war as military households, and confiscate them as slaves to herd horses.
It would be a great joy if Ma Dai could return from plundering some cattle, sheep and Qiang people.
It can provide cattle for Longyou and Hanzhong; it can also organize the strong prisoners of war into the army, and the weak ones can be transferred to the Lintao horse farm to herd horses, or they can all be used to transport grain and fodder along the Shu Road, which can alleviate the dilemma of the court's shortage of labor.
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Secondly, the Qiang people from Shaodang were sent to ask for joint troops.
The Shaodang Qiang tribe is a co-beneficiary of the Han Dynasty in accessing the Silk Road, and it is also the support that appeases the hearts of the Bashu tycoons.
Considering the long-term interests of the imperial court and the current situation, the Han Dynasty will not refuse to send troops.
Once again, it was Zheng Pu's plan to "destroy the tiger and swallow the wolf".
Even if the land at the head of the river was conquered, the imperial court would not have enough people to relocate and guard the border.
In this case, it is better to use the Qiang to destroy Tang Fan and make them become vassals of the Han Dynasty.
At least in the short term, the Shaodang Qiang will stand under the banner of the Han Dynasty to fight against the Wei Dynasty due to their own interests. Let the Han Dynasty send troops to Xiliang in the future without any threat from Heshou.
Finally, there is the cruelty that cannot be expressed in words.
The Shenlang Qiang that resides in the Wangqu Valley-Xiqing Mountain area borders Wudu County in its sphere of influence and has a population of nearly 100,000!
Regardless of tribal strength or strategic location, they are hidden dangers in the rear of the Han Dynasty.
Just relying on Jiang Wei's deliberate friendship and personal loyalty to inspire them would be difficult to guarantee that they would not become enemies of the Han in the future.
At least, in the eyes of those who rule the country, the best way to deal with threats is to nip them in the bud.
If Zheng Pu followed Zheng Pu's plan and lured the Dang Qiang into the land at the head of the river, and then incited them to conflict with the Shenlang Qiang, that would give the Han Dynasty time to conquer Liangzhou without worrying about the rear.
Once the Han captured Liangzhou and completely gained the geographical advantage to fight against Wei, there would be no need to consider the attitude of the Qiang and Hu tribes behind them.
It’s just a Qiang tribe!
If you dare not surrender to the Han, you will be destroyed!
How unreasonable!
Naturally, these arrangements need to be based on the negotiation between Shaodang Qiang King.
Well, the people who came to Didao this time were not only the Qiang King Mangzhong who resided on the other side of the West Sea, but also the Qiang King Zhuyi who lived in the Huangshui River Valley. [Note 1]
This also made Zheng Pu feel very strange.
According to common sense, King Qiang Zhuyi belonged to Niwei, so he naturally obtained silk and other items. Why did he come to Didao to secretly communicate with the Han army to ask for Shu brocade tea leaves and other items?
After asking in detail, Fang burst into laughter.
In the northwest of the original Han Dynasty, the Di people were mostly distributed in Yinping and Wudu counties; the Qiang people were mainly distributed in Longyou, Longxi, Jincheng, and Xiping counties; and the four counties in Hexi were inhabited by Hu people.
host.
Although since Emperor Wu opened the border, after hundreds of years of mixing and assimilation, the customs of the Qiang, Hu, and Di in the northwest have gradually merged. The Han people often refer to them collectively as Qiang and Hu (Qiang and Di have the same origin, and they can be called each other regardless of each other).
However, because Heyou had been disturbed for many years, in order to stabilize the place, the Wei Dynasty set up many passes to cut off the communication between various tribes.
Nowadays, it has become difficult to follow the Silk Road in the Huangshui Valley of Xiping County.
Those pass passes are too expensive!
It makes them extremely painful.
But if you don't follow the official path, you will face the powerful rightists and barbarians from the four counties of Hexi, pretending to be horse thieves and plundering along the way.
The only way is to negotiate with the Shaodang Qiang people who roam the West Sea and take a detour through their pastures. The route from the West Sea to the four counties of Hexi is shorter.
With such thoughts in mind, Qiang Wang Zhuyi found Qiang Wang Mangzhong on the grounds that he had the same ancestor and the same origin.
But he didn't want to, but he was persuaded by Qiang King Mangzhong
"With the Wei Dynasty, the pastures and cattle and sheep of the tribe have remained as they are today. If the Han Dynasty were attached at this time, wouldn't it be possible to get more pastures when Liangzhou changes hands in the future?"
This is what Qiang King Mangzhong persuaded.
Let King Qiang's eyes suddenly shine with brilliance.
Anyway, he didn't have a good impression of Ni Wei. For example, he had previously sent some tribesmen to rebel with Qu Ying. After the defeat, Ni Wei took away a lot of pasture.
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[Note 1: Historically, the Shaodang Qiang king Mangzhong and Zhuyi rebelled against Wei in 238 AD.]