Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 473: The powerful people of Yizhou: Rebel against Liu Bei and revive the Han Dynasty!

The roads in Maoniu County, a vassal state of Shu Commandery, were extremely dangerous. The river rushed out from the mountains in the west, with loud waves and roaring water. The river channel looked like a crouching dragon that was turning over and bending, with its joints creaking as it stretched.

The western side, where the mountains stretch out in an endless stream, is the place where the foreign Qiang people migrated from.

Looking around, there was only a lone eagle circling slowly hunting, crying out, and flapping its wings to fly over the mountain ridge.

"Oh, this is really hard to settle."

Zhang Fei rode to the riverside with nearly a hundred soldiers on horseback. Looking at the mountains, he couldn't help but sigh.

I don't know how Yu Wenzhe held his breath and crossed mountains and ridges to pursue the Qiang and Hu despite being sick. Even though one third of the soldiers fell ill on the way due to the steep mountains, he still forcibly wiped out the rebellious Qiang.

Now he no longer has the elite troops that he had back then. Not only are all the auxiliary soldiers newly recruited, but only half of the combat soldiers are veterans.

Given the current level of training of the Han army, attacking the nearby barbarians would be almost effortless.

Unfortunately, the enemy did not fight him in the field, but instead used tens of thousands of troops to fight him in the mountains. It was also the rainy season, and after more than half a month, the Han army was physically and mentally exhausted.

"If those thousands of powerful troops had not fled into this mountain, how could the Qiang people have become so difficult to attack?"

Military officer Zhang Cheng looked at the mountains and couldn't help but sigh.

The Qiang people who have lived here for hundreds of years are more familiar with the terrain than the Han people. When the foreign Qiang people migrated here, in addition to grazing in the mountains, they also chose to farm on the plains.

The mountains here are high and few Han people come here. To the west of the Maoniu Road, there are almost all Qiang tribes. They do not like to have contact with the Han people. Only the wealthy families who have traded and exchanged goods with them for decades have gradually gained their trust.

Hearing that the Han army was bloodthirsty, they wiped out more than half of the Qiang people near Liangzhou, and even went deep into the mountains to kill them.

The news had long since spread to the Qiang tribes in the southwest of Yizhou. The stories portrayed the Han army as vicious and evil, eating humans for fun, killing people everywhere, and causing blood and rain wherever they passed. They were even more barbaric than the Qiang tribes in the mountains.

Fortunately, a powerful family sent people who knew a little bit of Qiang language to pacify the Qiang people during this time of panic and unrest, thus stopping the unrest.

Unfortunately, the peaceful days only lasted a few short years before another powerful family sent people to climb mountains and wade through rivers to inform the Han army that they would massacre the foreign Qiang tribes that migrated to Shu just as they had wiped out the Qiang people in Liangzhou.

Then they occupied the mountains and cultivated the land, which scared the foreign Qiang people who couldn't even understand Chinese.

Some Outer Qiang leaders sent their confidants to nearby counties to find out the situation, but they were attacked and killed by the "Han army" halfway. Their heads were cut off and their bodies were left to be eaten by wild beasts.

Only a handful of people were lucky enough to dodge the arrows and escape.

Now the foreign Qiang people completely believed the words of the nobles. They were shocked and angry. They led their tribesmen, carrying bows and arrows and short swords, wearing armor woven from rattan and bamboo, and went down the mountain to attack the nearby people, killing thousands of people in succession.

It so happened that the defeated powerful tribes fled to the vassal states of Shu County, so Zhang Fei divided his troops to pursue them there, preparing to wipe out the barbarians and the powerful tribes. In a battle twenty miles outside Yandao County, more than four thousand heads were beheaded.

Zhang Fei thought he had defeated the Qiang tribe and defeated the barbarians, so he prepared to return to Chengdu to rest.

As a result, they had not gone far when the Qiang people returned with hatred.

Upon learning of this, Zhang Yide had no choice but to lead his troops back to fight against them, but the other side took the initiative to retreat back to the mountains.

He also summoned more Qiangwai tribes to come to help, attacked the Han army from all directions, and massacred the people.

Zhang Fei was forced to divide his troops again, and fell into a passive position. "General of Chariots and Cavalry..." Zhang Cheng cupped his hands and sighed, "This place is full of mountains, and it is easy to defend but difficult to attack. There are also powerful troops who teach the Qiang people to set up camps and store rolling logs and rocks. If we attack them by force, our army will suffer heavy losses."

"Besides, it is the rainy season now, which is not conducive to fire attacks. The tops of the mountains will be frozen and it will be as cold as winter. It will take time for the people to migrate."

"If reinforcements were sent to recapture Yuexi County and go north from Qiongshui River to the rear of many Waiqiang tribes, the situation would surely be reversed."

More than 3,200 men braved the cold rain and pushed tens of thousands of Qiang people to the northern part of Xindao Nanshan. The Han army had already fought extremely hard.

Zhang Fei did not expect that even though it was already summer, there was still snow on the mountains west of Yizhou.

"If I had known that we would be chased here, I would have brought more clothes from Hanzhong to keep warm." Zhang Fei cursed angrily.

When he learned of the rebellion in Shu in the first month of the year, he led his army from Hanzhong County, passed through Baishui Pass, and easily defeated the powerful people in Guanghan County and Shu County. He defeated tens of thousands of troops in the field battle and made them cry for their parents and flee at the news.

After two major defeats, the two counties were unable to recover.

Then he listened to the advice of the military officers Fa Zheng and Zhang Cheng, and divided the troops in Luo County and marched south. Instead of rescuing Chengdu, he went down the river to defeat the rebel army of the military government that was besieging Wuyang in Jianwei County, and cut off the way for the powerful to escape to the south.

It also echoed with Sun Ce, who defeated the enemy along the Han River and wiped out the Zhao and Chen families in Anhan County.

He ordered Sun Bofu to disperse and resettle the surrendered soldiers and to attack Chongguo County and Langzhong County.

During February and March, we won battles one after another, and our soldiers, horses, and flags were very numerous.

Even if some powerful people joined forces to capture the county town, equipped their troops with arsenals and weapons, and had a large number of people, they could not stop the Han army's thundering attack.

With lightning speed, they captured all the county towns and the manors of the powerful. The powerful families fled to the mountains in panic. The bandit armies in Ba, Guanghan, Shu and Qianwei counties were all defeated.

Even Fa Xiaozhi from the Secretariat clapped his hands and praised with a smile: "Now the army is powerful, like breaking bamboo. After a few battles, all problems will be solved easily. We can take advantage of the situation and advance!"

As a result, it became difficult to fight towards the south.

First, there were rebel forces involved in the military offices of various counties in Shu, and local military offices needed to be reorganized, and military and legal officials also needed Fa Zheng to lead the clerks to rectify them.

Secondly, the focus changed from suppressing the rebels to searching for and suppressing the barbarian tribes. In addition, most of the wealthy families in Yizhou refused to hand over their troops and servants, and were unwilling to measure the land, count the population, and pay taxes, so they rebelled together.

The remaining clans that did not participate also watched coldly. Only the Huang, Yan, and Wu clans responded to the imperial edict and acted as guides to support the Han army in suppressing the rebellion.

The voices of rebellion in Yizhou became more and more intense. Although several counties in the north were initially stabilized, the counties in the south became increasingly corrupt.

The nobles knew very well that they had raised the banner of rebellion, and they also spread rumors that Emperor Liu Bei was not a descendant of Emperor Gaozu, just like Wang Lang who falsely claimed to be Liu Ziyu, the son of Emperor Xiaocheng, but was just plotting something big.

They were also known as the nobles and powerful families in the world, but they were afraid of his sharp military force and wanted to curry favor with him and take over the throne, so they watched Liu Bei abolish the princes of Guangwu's lineage.

The three dukes, nine ministers and many other ministers in the former court were also dismissed and driven back to their hometowns to live out their lives.

Call on everyone to respond quickly and raise the flag to support Liu Xinghan at this moment.

The powerful people in Yizhou made the absurd story sound plausible and spread it among the villagers. There was absolutely no chance of being pardoned, so they had to fight to the death.

(End of this chapter)