Back in the camp, Ma Teng said with a sad face: "If we are enemies with the Qiang people, we will definitely suffer from the enemy on our backs, and the day of destruction is not far away." ”

Ma Chao said excitedly: "Don't worry, father, why worry about the Qiang people? Now that Han Sui is dead, almost all the princes of Liangzhou have been exterminated by Chen Xu. ”

"We only need to destroy the Qiang people, and we can win the hearts of the people of Liangzhou, and at that time, there will be countless followers. Without the Qiang people, we can also monopolize the four counties of Longxi in Liangzhou. ”

"The four counties of Longxi are remote and barren, even if Chen Wenzhao wants to raise troops to conscript, he can't catch it. We can hold on to this place and dominate one side; Enter the eastern counties of Liangzhou, and look at Guanzhong, why not? ”

Ma Chao is a young man after all, with a sharpness and edge that Ma Teng can hardly reach. In the face of the current situation, not only did they not have the slightest worry, but they were ambitious to unify the four counties of Longxi.

Even though he has half of the Qiang blood, Ma Chao still looks down on the Qiang people in his heart. Regarding the killing of the Qiang people, he did not have the slightest resistance in his heart.

Ma Dai also said: "The eldest brother's words are good, now the Han and Qiang tribes are incompatible, and my uncle will raise troops to attack the Qiang people, and the Han people will definitely compete for attachment." Although there are not many Han people in the four counties of Longxi, they are not much less than the Qiang people. ”

"As long as the power of all the Han people is integrated, why fear the Qiang people?"

"As for Chen Wenzhao, since he issued the 'Qiang Killing Order', it can be seen that this person has hatred for the Qiang people. The lord sent troops to attack the Qiang, and he would definitely not take advantage of the weakness. ”

"If your uncle is not at ease and is worried about the enemy, you might as well pretend to submit to the court, and then ask for weapons, grain and grass for the purpose of crusading against the Qiang people."

"If Chen Wenzhao is willing to give his uncle grain, grass, and ordnance, we will definitely have no worries; If not, it's not too late to think about it. ”

Ma Teng thought so, so he went to the court and said that he was willing to obey the dispatch of the court.

Puban City, in the general's mansion, Chen Xu took the document sent by Ma Teng's envoy and carefully read the contents several times.

It is written in the document: The Son of Heaven is above, and the foreign minister Ma Teng is afraid of what he has done in the past, and hopes that His Majesty will be merciful, and Gu Nianchen still has the will to be loyal to the monarch and patriotism, and can accept the surrender of the guilty minister.

The descendants of General Ma Yuan, the general of Chenben Han, always have a heart of loyalty. Now the Qiang people have formed an alliance and plundered and slaughtered everywhere with a large army, and countless Han compatriots have been slaughtered.

After Teng Xi became loyal and good, the Han and Miao descendants only knew at this time that 'if they are not in my clan, their hearts will be different', and they regretted helping the Qiang people in the past.

The criminal ministers have already killed all the Qiang people in the army, and they want to fight to the death with the Qiang people with all their might, so as to protect the safety of hundreds of thousands of people in the four counties of Longxi.

However, the four counties of Longxi were deserted and barren, and although Teng wanted to raise troops to attack the Qiang people, there were many shortage of food, grass and weapons. I hope that the Son of Heaven will have mercy, and the general will be kind and righteous, and he will be able to support some materials for the criminal ministers, and the criminal ministers will take the slaughter of the Qiang people as their own responsibility, and they are willing to return the body of the horse leather.

After reading the document several times, Chen Xu immediately summoned his subordinates and passed the document on.

After everyone read the documents, Chen Xu asked: "Ma Teng surrendered for no reason, and asked for food, grass, and ordnance, but what does it mean?" ”

Everyone discussed privately for a long time, and Tian Fengcai said: "Some time ago, there was a detailed report, saying that the Qiang people formed a huge alliance, broke through one county town after another, and slaughtered the Han people inside, in order to avenge the 'killing order' issued by the lord. ”

"Later, another scout came to report that Ma Teng's Xiliang army mutinied, and the Han soldiers killed the Qiang people, forcing Ma Teng to send troops to attack the Qiang people."

It can be inferred from this that when Ma Teng was afraid of being an enemy with the Qiang people, the lord led his troops into the four counties of Longxi, and he suffered the enemy on his own back. Ma Teng surrendered, asking for food, grass, and ordnance is false, and testing the attitude of the lord is true. ”

Chen Xu suddenly realized and asked, "Since this is the case, what should I do?" ”

Tian Feng smiled slightly and said, "The trouble of the Qiang people is far better than that of Ma Teng. The lord may wish to accept Ma Teng's submission and transport some grain, grass, and ordnance to reassure him. ”

"In this way, Ma Teng will be at peace and will definitely fight with the Qiang people, and we just need to sit and reap the benefits of the fisherman."

Chen Xu asked the opinions of several other strategists, and they all nodded in agreement with Tian Feng's inference.

Only Jia Xu added: "In addition to what Yuan Hao said, the lord can re-crown Ma Teng as the general of Zhengxi, and his son Ma Chao as the general of Poqiang." The two of them must be overjoyed when they receive this reward, and they no longer have the heart to guard against the lord. ”

Wen Zhao thought so, so he handed over Ma Teng's documents to the Son of Heaven, and said that Ma Teng was the general of Zhengxi and Ma Chao was the general of Poqiang.

As Tian Feng and Jia Xu expected, when the imperial edict, grain, grass, and ordnance were transported to Ma Teng's army, Ma Teng immediately stopped hesitating and began to fight with the Qiang people in a big way.

At the beginning, even if Ma Teng annexed Han Sui's soldiers and horses, there was still a lot of gap between him and the Qiang people. Fortunately, Ma Chao was brave and brave, and the Xiliang army was also full of hatred for the Qiang people, and its combat effectiveness soared.

In this way, although Ma Teng was at a disadvantage, he did not defeat on all fronts.

With the passage of time, countless Han people in Liangzhou heard the wind and went to join Ma Teng. Even many horse thieves and rogues are like-minded.

For a while, Ma Teng's strength became stronger and stronger, and he actually began to swell.

The four counties of Longxi were caught in a continuous war, and the north and south of the Han Dynasty were also in turmoil.

As soon as the spring ploughing passed, Yuan Shao sent 100,000 soldiers to the east to Youzhou to expedition to Gongsun Zan in Liaodong. The Wuhuan people resented Gongsun Zhan, and they also raised 30,000 troops to help Yuan Shao.

On the front line of the Liao River, a large-scale war broke out between the two sides.

The Shanyue alien race in the south has always been the scourge of Yangzhou, and after Sun Ce seized Yangzhou, he was determined to pacify the trouble of Shanyue.

Especially when I saw it, Chen Xu's tough attitude towards the Qiang people, the young and vigorous Sun Ce, was even more sharpened for the southern Shanyue.

The weather in the south is already warmer, and their spring ploughing time is much earlier than in the north. After the fields in the territory were cultivated, Sun Ce led 30,000 troops to attack Shanyue.

Before leaving, Zhou Yu said to Sun Ce: "The Shanyue people make a living from farming, fishing and hunting, and they are different from the nomadic Qiang people. The elder brother only needs to defeat Shanyue and capture their people for internal migration, which can not only pacify the disaster of Shanyue, but also enrich the population of the territory. ”

For example, among the princes today, except for Liu Bei, only Sun Ce is the weakest. This weakness not only refers to the small territory, but also refers to the fact that the population in the territory is too sparse.

In troubled times, population is capital, and the princes who lack population not only encourage the people in their territory to have children, but also the more direct way is to plunder the population.

However, the princes on all sides of Jiangdong were not easy to deal with, and if they wanted to enrich the population of Jiangdong, they could only hit the Shanyue people in the south.

As Zhou Yu said, there is a big difference between the Shanyue people and the Qiang people. As long as their tribes are broken, the people of Shanyue are plundered and scattered and moved inward, and then they are given enough land to live on.

After these Shanyue people settle down, they will also have a sense of dependence on the government. With land and houses to worry about, the possibility of them making trouble is much smaller.

This is the difference between those who fish, hunt and farm, and the nomadic people. Compared with the nomadic peoples, the fishing, hunting, and farming peoples are better to conquer and educate.

When the Three Kingdoms were established in history, it was precisely by constantly fighting against Shanyue that Eastern Wu plundered countless Shanyue people, so as to maintain a sufficient number of people in the territory.

Whether it was to quell the rebellions that had raged in the mountains or to be able to plunder enough people, the war in the south was destined to never stop.

In addition, Cao Cao of Xuzhou is still in Taoguang, although he has made a lot of killings in Xuzhou.

However, with the passage of time, with the promulgation of one policy after another that is conducive to people's livelihood, the simple people finally slowly let go of the hatred in their hearts.

To this day, although they are not very supportive of Cao Cao, they have also begun to accept this new lord.

Compared with the lukewarm attitude of the people of Xuzhou, the people in Qingzhou, who have experienced repeated wars, are a little grateful to Cao Cao, the lord.

Before the Yellow Turban Uprising, the people of Qingzhou suffered strong oppression, coupled with the ravages of natural and man-made disasters, which led to the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Uprising, and the people rose up one after another.

It wasn't until Guan Hai led the Qingzhou Yellow Turban to defect to Chen Xu in Bingzhou that calm slowly returned to Qingzhou. However, this calm did not last long, and Gongsun Chan and Yuan Shao began to compete here again.

After Cao Cao conquered Qingzhou, he promulgated a series of policies that were beneficial to the people, which were thoroughly supported by the people.

The other, the princes who left a great reputation in history, cannot but be mentioned.

Although Liu Bei has no talents now, after he occupied most of Yuzhou, he promulgated a series of policies to benefit the people, which also won the hearts of the people.

I have to say that Liu Bei's means of buying the hearts of the people are not necessarily much worse than Wen Zhao. The most important thing is that under Liu Bei's rule, the lives of the people have indeed changed a lot.

Although Yuzhou has been war-torn for a long time, it was looted and scooped up by Yuan Shu, and most of the people in the territory fled into Guanzhong. However, now there are still nearly a million people under Liu Bei's rule.

Liu Bei not only began to develop internal affairs, he also attached great importance to the military, and now he has gathered 50,000 soldiers and horses under his command.

As for Liu Biao and Liu Zhang, the two Han clan relatives, although they did not have much enterprising spirit, they also governed the territory in an orderly manner, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.

Generally speaking, in the three years of Jian'an, except for the Han people in the four counties of Longxi, the lives of the people in the rest of the princes have become much better.

Even, even the lives of the people before the Yellow Turban Rebellion were not as good as they are now.

After all, people who can become princes of one side have extraordinary talents. They know the role of the people in the development of the territory, and they do their best to work for the welfare of the people in the territory.

As a result, there was a deformed prosperity in troubled times