Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

After Chapter 208, please stop sending letters. We are afraid that His Highness the Crown Prince will misunderstand!
After Zhu Jun took office as the governor of Liangzhou, his official seat was still Ji County in Hanyang Commandery, but in reality, he had already moved to Didao County in Longxi Commandery with his governor's office staff at the end of last year.

From the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Zhu Jun keenly sensed the oppressive atmosphere in Liangzhou.

When he governed Liangzhou, he was not afraid of the Qiang people rebelling, but he was afraid that the Qiang people would stay at home and not cause any trouble.

If they don't cause trouble, can they still be called Qiang people?

It wasn't that Zhu Jun was obsessed with military achievements; it was simply the nature of the Qiang people.

The Qiang people are prone to private feuds. Not to mention battles between two tribes, even if neighbors fight over a minor incident where the other's cattle or sheep have crossed the boundary and taken a bite of grass, both sides will immediately gather their men, women, and children and fight with knives.

It's not that they're petty, but rather that the phrase "survival of the fittest" is almost ingrained in the very bones of these Qiang people.

If you allow your neighbor's cattle and sheep to cross the boundary and eat a bite of your grass today, tomorrow your neighbor can take all your cattle and sheep away, and the day after tomorrow, the men in your family will be slaves and the women will be maids.

In short, if you back down, you are weak, and if you are weak, you deserve to die!

This is also a major reason why, after the Liangzhou prefecture was moved to Ji County in Hanyang Commandery as a compromise with the Liangzhou Qiang rebellion, the various Qiang tribes in the four commanderies of Hexi and Longyou looked down on the Han Dynasty. Even after being defeated by the Han Dynasty, they would lick their wounds for a few years and then raise troops to rebel again.

If the Qiang people don't cause trouble, it's either because they've been temporarily hurt, or they're brewing a large-scale rebellion.

In the past hundred years or so, the Qiang and Hu tribes in Liangzhou have experienced rebellions for a period of no more than six years and no more than twenty-one years, with a major rebellion breaking out every ten years or so.

Fourteen years have passed since Duan Jiong last quelled a rebellion and dealt a heavy blow to the Qiang and Hu tribes of Liangzhou!
Clearly, these Qiang people are plotting a large-scale rebellion!
But this is also why His Highness the Crown Prince appointed him as the Governor of Liangzhou!
Zhu Jun always spoke highly of the Crown Prince, and the imperial ceremonial axe that was almost always at his side aroused the curiosity of the powerful clans of Liangzhou about the Crown Prince that Zhu Jun spoke of.

To their astonishment and fear, the powerful clans of Liangzhou discovered that a brand new sun was rising in the east of Liangzhou!

His Highness the Crown Prince showed no regional discrimination and was even willing to give important positions to the people of Liangzhou!
The Crown Prince treated Jia Xu, the Governor of Henan and Marquis of Guannei, Huangfu Song, the General of the Left and Marquis of Wating, Dong Zhuo, the General of the Right and Marquis of Jiequanting, and a host of civil and military officials from Liangzhou with great courtesy.

what?
You said he's just the Crown Prince, not His Majesty the Emperor?
fart!

There can only be one sun in the sky of the Han Dynasty, and that is the future Emperor Liu Bian!

Of course, these are all official statements from the powerful clans of Liangzhou.

The reality is, they went too far!
First, the Yellow Turban Rebellion caused far less damage to the Han Dynasty's national strength than they had anticipated.

Secondly, the imperial court's response was far too swift!

According to the ideas of the powerful clans in Liangzhou, the imperial court should be facing an empty treasury due to the Yellow Turban Rebellion. With an empty treasury, it would be impossible to easily recruit troops to quell the rebellion in Liangzhou. Instead, they hoped that the problem could be solved internally in Liangzhou.

In this way, the rebels could also rapidly expand their territory and plunder wealth during this period, thereby consolidating their strength and marching eastward!
Moreover, even if the national treasury is not empty, based on the time it takes for the court to make decisions during past Qiang rebellions, it would be impossible to complete the cumbersome court deliberation process in less than ten days to half a month. In fact, the final decision might still be to not send troops and leave it to the governor of Liangzhou and the Protector of the Qiang to handle on their own.

Hey, the report from Zhu Jun, the governor of Liangzhou, arrived in Luoyang in the early morning of the fifth day of the rebellion, and the Luoyang court made a decision that very morning, recruiting soldiers and allocating provisions and weapons. In about a month, the court had prepared military supplies and soldiers with unprecedented administrative efficiency.

Immediately, His Highness the Crown Prince gave an order, and 100,000 soldiers marched westward!

Initially, the powerful clans of Liangzhou heard rumors that the imperial court had announced the dispatch of 200,000 troops to Liangzhou to quell the rebellion.

Some people were terrified. If an army of 200,000 men were thrown into the river, it would probably be enough to cut off the flow of the Wei River!
After the imperial army defeated the scattered rebel forces in the Three Auxiliary Regions and set foot in Liangzhou, the scouts responsible for reconnaissance relayed two pieces of news to the powerful clans of Liangzhou: one good and one bad.

The good news is that the imperial court didn't actually have 200,000 troops!

Upon hearing this news, the powerful clans of Liangzhou breathed a sigh of relief.

Right, who would go all in right away?

Someone asked what the bad news was, and the scouts reported that the bad news was that the imperial army numbered about 100,000!

A hundred thousand troops?

Where did this army of 100,000 come from?!
However, as scouts and intelligence from the Liangzhou rebels came in wave after wave, it was confirmed that the imperial court had indeed gathered an army of 100,000 to launch a western expedition!
Huangfu Song didn't care at all about the leak of intelligence, and even directly announced the source and composition of the 100,000-strong army.

The army consisted of 20,000 men from the three prefectures, 40,000 men from the three rivers, 5,000 soldiers from the Yong camp, 5,000 soldiers from the Chang'an camp, 10,000 soldiers from the three prefectures and kingdoms, and 20,000 young and strong auxiliary soldiers temporarily recruited, totaling 100,000 troops, no less!
The powerful clans of Liangzhou fell silent.

Damn it, Duan Jiong faced Liangzhou, which had almost completely fallen, and the rebel army that launched large-scale attacks on the Three Auxiliary Regions every few days. The army consisted of 5,000 cavalry, 10,000 infantry, and 3,000 chariots, totaling less than 20,000 men. Yet, he beheaded more than 8,000, captured 280,000 head of cattle, horses, and sheep, and recovered Liangzhou!
What merit or ability do we, a bunch of rotten potatoes and stinking birds, have to trouble Your Highness the Crown Prince to send Huangfu Song with an army of 100,000 to conquer us!
Among them were elite troops such as the Northern Army and the Imperial Guards, as well as many generals and officers who had earned their fame and fortune through their swords and spears during the Yellow Turban Rebellion!
The leaders of the various rebel armies—Bei Gong Boyu, Li Wenhou, Bian Zhang, Song Jian, and Wang Guo—all sent letters to inquire how to defeat the imperial army.

The powerful clans of Liangzhou declared: I'll beat your mother!
Then, in Hanyang County, which had not yet been touched by the rebels, the powerful clans decisively killed the rebel messengers. They then placed the messengers' heads in a wooden box, along with letters and intelligence from the rebels, as a pledge of allegiance to Gai Xun, to show that they had severed ties with the rebels and had no intention of rebelling against the court.

Gai Xun, relying on the military might of the imperial court, simply made exorbitant demands.

Alright, we're all from Liangzhou!

How could fellow villagers make things difficult for each other? Of course I will allow you to surrender!
But my brother, I am now the governor of Hanyang. If I don't make some contributions, I won't be able to explain myself.

Either you discuss which of the four families in Hanyang—Jiang, Yan, Ren, and Yang—I will kill as a merit, or you surrender and lose half of your property as military funds as a merit!

Friend or foe, the choice is yours!

What a joke! They killed all the rebel messengers and handed over their letters and intelligence. Not only did they become enemies with the rebels, but they also betrayed their intelligence!
This makes it even less likely for the rebels to win; they have no other choice.
Therefore, the military supplies that were originally planned to be "accidentally" looted by the rebels were all packed up and sent to the barracks outside the city.

As for the rebel leaders of Liangzhou such as Beigong Boyu and Li Wenhou, the powerful clans of Hanyang Commandery said, "Sorry, you are a good person, but we are not suitable."

Also, please don't send any more letters in the future, we're afraid His Highness the Crown Prince will misunderstand!
(End of this chapter)