Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

On August 25, Lü Bu led two thousand Flying Bear troops into Chang'an City. Two days later, the troops, horses, and food supplies from Hedong and Hongnong also arrived.

The Tang army assembled in Chang'an, and its intention was self-evident. The warlords of Liang Province were all terrified and at a loss when they heard the news. Among them, Liang Xing who occupied Beidi County and Yang Qiu who occupied Anding County, the first thing they thought of was to surrender to Lu Bu.

Liang Xing was originally a subordinate of Beigong Boyu. After Dong Zhuo defeated Beigong Boyu in Wangyuan, Liang Xing surrendered to Dong Zhuo and was assigned to Dong Min. Later, Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang, and he stayed in Fufeng County with Dong Min. After Dong Zhuo was killed, he was afraid of being liquidated by the court, so he fled Fufeng County with his troops and occupied a city in Zuofengyi, where Liangzhou and Yongzhou meet, to defend himself.

When Li Su and Li Jue controlled the government, Liang Xing surrendered to the court and was granted the title of General Pinglu. Until the demise of the two Lis, he remained stationed in the Yunyang area of ​​Zuofengyi and established his own power.

Two years ago, Taishi Ci took over the military affairs of Yongzhou. Liang Xing was defeated by him and fled back to Beidi County. Because he had followed Beigong Boyu and Dong Zhuo, and Ma Teng, who originally occupied this place, died, the Qiang people who admired the strong supported him to become the master of Beidi County and became one of the warlords of Liangzhou.

Although Liang Xing had never followed Lu Bu, he was quite familiar with Lu Bu's battle record. He had also witnessed Lu Bu's unparalleled performance at Wangyuan with his own eyes. In addition, he had not been able to defeat Taishi Ci before, let alone Lu Bu in person. He had no intention of resisting at all. On the day he received the news, he proposed to surrender to Lu Bu.

However, he wanted to surrender, but his generals refused to agree. They learned from the Xiongnu people who fled from Bingzhou that Lu Bu had completely dismantled the Xiongnu tribes, abolished the tribal rules, dispersed the people, and even split up the families. Those tribal leaders were now only slightly richer than ordinary people.

Liang Xing could only gain a foothold with the support of the northern heroes. Since they collectively disagreed, he had no choice but to surrender, and could only summon his subordinates to strengthen the defense.

As for Yang Qiu, he was originally a subordinate of Ma Teng. Ma Teng was killed by Han Sui in Huayin. The only adult was the young master Ma Chao, who was captured again. The top leader of the army, Pang De, surrendered to Lu Bu. Lu Bu had sent people to take away Ma Chao's family. The leaderless Yang Qiu took over the remnants of Ma Teng and became one of the separatist forces.

However, although his subordinates were Ma Teng's old subordinates, there were also many Qiang and Di people. These heroes made it clear that they could surrender, but Lu Bu had to promise never to dismantle their tribes.

"Not dismantling the tribe? Are you going to wait until later to rebel?"

In the front hall of the Weiyang Palace in Chang'an, Lü Bu read the terms of surrender delivered by Yang Qiu's envoy and said directly to the messenger, "Go back and tell him that it is forbidden!"

Without a second thought, Lü Bu rejected Yang Qiu's surrender. Ma Chao, anxious, stepped forward and promised, "Your Majesty, these are all my father's former subordinates. I will be in charge of them from now on. They will never rebel. You should trust me. My mother and brothers remain in Bingzhou. I am loyal to you, Your Majesty. No matter who instigates me, I will never betray you. Why don't we just leave these people alone?"

Lu Bu gave him a meaningful look and said, "I have sent 30,000 combat troops, 20,000 auxiliary troops, and 20,000 civilians. Do you think this is a 70,000-man force just for a picnic? If I grant them the terms, and others follow suit and surrender on these terms, will I accept them or not?"

Ma Chao choked and pouted, "Then... we can just take them in. It's not impossible not to take the others. Besides, the Longguan Road leading to Longyou is controlled by the Di people, so a forced attack would inevitably result in heavy casualties. If we can take Yang Qiu in, our main force can march north along the Jingshui River Valley to the Xiaoguan Road and directly into Longyou, saving a lot of unnecessary trouble!"

The ancients sat facing south, with the west as the right and the east as the left. There was a Longshan Mountain between Anding County and Hanyang County. Except for the Beidi and Anding counties controlled by Liang Xing and Yang Qiu, which were to the east of Longshan Mountain, the rest of the counties were to the west and were collectively referred to as "Longyou".

There are two passages for Lu Bu's army to enter Longyou. One is the Longguan Road that passes through Wei County to Fanxukou, which is currently controlled by the Di people Agui. The other is the Xiaoguan Road that goes north along the Jing River and is controlled by Yang Qiu.

The first two sentences Ma Chao said were pure childish nonsense, but the latter words made Lu Bu hesitate.

Liangzhou is mountainous, and the checkpoints are easy to defend but difficult to attack. A strong attack would mean huge casualties. However, if Yang Qiu was captured, the Tang army could go straight into the rear of the Di people from Xiaoguan Road and attack them from both sides. It would be easy to take Longguan Road, control these two passages, connect them to Chencang Road in the south leading to Wudu County, and the Tang army would control the entire Longyou artery.

From a tactical point of view, accepting the surrender of Yang Qiu's troops is indeed of great benefit. However, from the political intention of this expedition, this first precedent cannot be broken. Could it be that it is really as Ma Chao said, that only Yang Qiu will be accepted and no one else?

Lü Bu was undecided and asked Jia Xu, "What does Wenhe think?"

Jia Xu raised his eyelids and asked, "Does the king know Sanming in Liangzhou?"

Lu Bu was confused and shook his head. Jia Xu lowered his throat and began to give him a history lesson.

The so-called Three Ming of Liangzhou refers to the three military commanders sent by the Han Dynasty to quell the rebellion in Liangzhou: Huangfu Gui, Zhang Huan, and Duan Jiong. Because their courtesy names all contain the character "Ming", they are called the Three Ming of Liangzhou.

The three of them had outstanding achievements in the war against the Qiang and were very famous among the Qiang people. However, their policies towards the Qiang people were completely different. Zhang Huan and Huangfu Gui advocated appeasement. After surrendering the Qiang people, they let their tribes disperse among the Han people, adapt to farming life, and assimilate them.

Duan Xing, on the other hand, believed that the Qiang people who accepted the surrender should unconditionally obey the Han court's arrangements, and those who refused to obey should be completely eliminated.

"And then? The Qiang people are still causing chaos. Both of the three people's methods seem unworkable." Lu Bu asked.

Jia Xu explained, "Whether to appease or exterminate the Qiang actually depends primarily on the court's finances. If the court could provide the Qiang people with sufficient financial support, these tribes could be gradually assimilated and absorbed. However, the cost is too high. During the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling, the central government's fiscal deficit was severe, and the two emperors had to rely on selling official positions to fill the black hole. At that time, they had no ability to appease the Qiang. Therefore, although Zhang Huan and Huangfu Gui subdued all the major Qiang tribes, in the end, almost all of them rebelled again. It can be seen that this method was not feasible at the time."

"As for Duan Xing, his policy was to demand the unconditional surrender of the Qiang people before they would be incorporated into the Han Dynasty. After several years of war, almost all the Qiang people who had rebelled against the court had either died or surrendered. The Qiang problem that had plagued the Han Dynasty for hundreds of years was temporarily completely calmed down.

Duan killed people like crazy, but he did not practice genocide. There were a large number of elite Qiang soldiers loyal to the Han Dynasty in his army, such as the "Huangzhong Yicong". When they marched to Liangzhou, the court only gave them a few thousand central troops, but when they returned victorious, their force reached "more than 50,000 Qin Hu infantry and cavalry", most of whom were local Han people in Liangzhou and Qiang people loyal to the Han. It can be said that the Han Dynasty relied on the Qiang army to quell the Qiang rebellion at that time.

Therefore, the root cause remains unresolved. With the decline of the Han court, this powerful Qiang army rebelled again, and the Qiang people who had previously been incorporated joined the uprising, leading to the current unrest in Liang Province."

After listening to this, Lü Bu suddenly understood. "I understand what you mean, sir. Appeasement and assimilation will cost a lot of money. The Tang Dynasty's finances are simply unable to support it. We cannot rely on the local Qiang army to completely subdue them. Otherwise, we will be nurturing a tiger to harm us."

Jia Xu nodded with satisfaction. "Your Majesty's understanding is correct. Only by using the Tang army to defeat the Qiang and Di tribes without any chance of resistance, and then separating and resettling them, can we resolve the Qiang threat. This will be difficult at first, but as long as the situation is pacified and the Tang Dynasty survives, the Qiang people will not dare to cause trouble again."

Lü Bu nodded and immediately said to Yang Qiu's messenger, "Go back and tell Yang Qiu that if he is willing to surrender, he will have a place in the Tang army for Meng Qi's sake. However, the Qiang tribe must be split up. There is no room for negotiation on this matter. Let him decide for himself."

"Yes!"

The man responded and left the hall quickly.

Seeing that Lu Bu had made up his mind, Ma Chao dared not say another word.