When the battle of Weishui fell into a stalemate, Liu Yin had already cleared Feng Yijun's Hu people's annihilation department, but Liu Yin was not in a hurry to return to the direction of Chang'an, and now Fu Yan relied on the Weishui natural danger, and had firmly blocked Qi Wannian on the north bank of the Wei River.

Therefore, Liu Yin decided not to move Qi Wannian for the time being, but directly entered Xinping County and Anding County to the west to eliminate Ma Lanqiang and Lu Shuihu.

Malan Mountain is a mountain peak in the south-central part of the Meridian Ridge of the Qiaoshan Mountain Range, surrounded by a Malan River at the bottom of the mountain, which is the natural dividing line between Beidi County and Xinping County, and the Qiang people who live here are called Malan Qiang.

There are many tribes of the Qiang people, with Yao Yikang where Yao Yikang is located, and Xianling Qiang is called Xiqiang, in the territory of Shu Qingyi Qiang, Baima Qiang and other tribes are called Southwest Qiang, and the Qiang tribe living in Longxi is called Northwest Qiang, among which the most powerful is Ma Lanqiang.

In the heyday of the Western Han Dynasty, the population of the Qiang people was as much as 12 million, accounting for a quarter of the total population of the Western Han Dynasty.

Fortunately, although the Qiang people are an ancient nation, as early as even the era of Dayu to control the water, but the Qiang people have never been a single nation, language, clothing, living habits, religious beliefs are different, each tribe is constantly attacking and killing each other, the same water and fire, so although the Qiang people have also appeared in the tribal leaders, but have never been able to unify the Qiang people scattered in various places, which undoubtedly provides an opportunity for the Han people to divide and rule, Otherwise, if such a large ethnic group really united and rebelled, it would be a severe test for any Han regime.

Ma Lanqiang is the most powerful of the Northwest Qiang, but by the Han regime and the northern Zhuhu squeezed out, the living space has been constantly shrinking, once known as the first Hu in the northwest Qiang people have now fallen behind the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Di people, become a weak tribe.

But Ma Lanqiang's leader Ma Gelong was not willing to sink so much, this time the rebellion of the northern Zhuhu undoubtedly gave him an opportunity, Ma Gelong immediately responded, launched a rebellion in Xinping County, attacked the city and plundered the land, wantonly plundered, and behaved extremely active.

Xinping County has a small area, and after the Ma Ge Long uprising, he is not willing to occupy only such a little territory, but Ma Lanqiang is adjacent to the east of the powerful Qi Wannian tribe, and with the current strength of Ma Lanqiang, it is not enough to compete with Qi Wannian, so Ma Gelong will target the expansion of Lu Shuihu in the west.

Lu Shuihu is an ethnic minority active in the northwest region since the Han Dynasty, with complex ethnic origins, both Xiongnu and Yue, and in the evolution of the ethnic group, it has absorbed the tribes of the Qian, Qiang and even Han tribes, so it has the characteristics of both Caucasian and yellow people, and its core component is believed to be derived from the Lu side of the Shang Dynasty.

Anding County is the birthplace of Lu Shuihu, and Lu water flows into the Jing River to the southeast, and it has been a mixed area of Qiang and Rong since ancient times. The name of Lu Shui originated from the Xirong Lu Fang in the Yin Shang Dynasty, and the Lu Fang was a tribal country centered on the current Pingliang Kongtong Mountain in Gansu Province, so it was called Lu Shuihu.

Lu Shuihu has lived in stability for generations, and like Ma Lanqiang, he lived a half-farming and half-pastoral life, compared with the rough and unrestrained Xiongnu and Xianbei people, they are much more obedient, and have long accepted the canonization and rule of the Han court, and seem to belong to a tamed people.

But these Hu people, but they all have the blood of the ancient Hu people in their bodies, and the temporary submission does not mean that they have no ambitions, and Peng Hu, who is now the king of Hushui Hu, is the same as Ma Gelong, he is an ambitious person, and they all dream of one day reproducing the glory of their ancestors, founding a country, and no longer relying on others.

If Ma Lanqiang or Lu Shuihu alone might not dare to rebel, because they knew very well that once they rebelled, they would definitely be bloodily suppressed by the Han government, and with their current strength, they would not be enough to compete with the Han government.

However, the Hu rebellion that arose from Bingzhou this time swept the entire north like a hurricane, and spread from Bingzhou to Yongliang, not only the Xiongnu, but even the Xianbei people and Di people also joined the ranks of the rebellion, and the whole rebellion situation was in full swing, like a fire in the plain, and soon burned all over the northern states and counties.

Peng Hu couldn't hold back, he thought that the rebellion of the Hu people was the trend of the times, if he didn't take action at this moment, Lu Shuihu was likely to lose the opportunity, so he also rose up, raised the banner of rebellion in Anding County, and launched an attack on Linjing, the county governor of Anding County.

Although there is no clear demarcation, each Hu seems to have its own sphere of influence, for example, Hao San's Xiongnu tribe was active in the area of Fengyi County, Qi Wannian's Di tribe was active in the area of Beidi County, and Ma Lanqiang and Lu Shuihu's sphere of influence was limited to Xinping County and Anding County.

However, this division of spheres of influence is only based on the original areas of activity of the Hus, and there are no covenants or agreements, nor does it have any binding force. Obviously, due to the different sizes of the counties, the amount of territory occupied by each Hu was unbalanced, and the area of the northern county was small, and Qi Wannian did not move against the neighboring Xiongnu and Ma Lanqiang, but chose to fight against the Han people, but captured Weinan.

Ma Lanqiang's leader Ma Gelong is obviously not as fierce as Qi Wannian, and he dares to openly call the Banhan government, Xinping County is not large, in order to expand Ma Lanqiang's territory, Ma Ge Zhan will set his sights on Lu Shuihu in the west.

Frankly speaking, Ma Lanqiang and Lu Shuihu are almost the same in terms of population and strength, and the comparison of strength is also indistinguishable, one occupies a small Xinping County, and the other occupies a vast and sparsely populated Anding County, and Ma Gelong obviously covets the vast territory occupied by Lu Shuihu.

After the uprising, Ma Gelong did not have the courage to openly provoke the Han government and launch an attack on the Weinan region like Qi Wannian, and he chose to attack the neighboring Lu Shuihu.

In the face of Ma Lanqiang's sudden attack, Peng Hu was of course unwilling to retreat, and the two sides fought fiercely in Xizhou, not giving up an inch of land, and the fight was inseparable.

Cranes and mussels compete, fishermen benefit, of course Liu Yin will not let go of such an opportunity, immediately raised troops from Feng Yi, crossed Beidi County, and attacked Xinping. (To be continued.) )