The origin of Xianbei is no longer reliable. It is said that it is after the Donghu people.※※
However, forces change frequently on the grassland. National inheritance has nothing to do with culture, customs, or blood. As long as you have strength, no one will care about what you want to call yourself. The names passed down to later generations include Donghu, Xiongnu, and Xianbei, and they have been lost in the long river of history.
There are some that are not even known to people at the time.
Xianbei really began to enter the Central Plains dynasty's vision during the Jianwu period in the early Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, Xianbei was still a small tribe, subordinate to the Xiongnu. Together with the boss, they took advantage of the fatigue of the Central Plains and went south to rob.
The Eastern Han Dynasty quickly launched a counterattack, and the fierce flames of the Huns were suppressed. Xianbei, the younger brother, saw the decline of his boss, and began to show his true nature as a loser. He defected to the Central Plains and began to attack the Huns.
The hard work paid off. After the decisive victory over the Northern Huns in the first year of Zhanghe, the Xianbei people finally became the new overlords on the grassland. Not only did they take over the Huns' territory and tribes, they also inherited the Huns and their people.
The hostile relationship of the Han Empire caused the Eastern Han Dynasty's external strategy to change from fighting against the Xiongnu to uniting Wuhuan and Xiongnu to attack Xianbei.
Although Xianbei defeated the Xiongnu, it was not able to fully digest the results for a long time. Internal battles often occurred, resulting in a strength that was completely unable to compare with the Xiongnu or Donghu in their heyday. However, after Emperor Guangwu, the Eastern Han Dynasty
The strength of Xianbei is also deteriorating, and the threat posed by Xianbei to the Central Plains is not much smaller than that of the Xiongnu back then.
Especially during the twenty years of Emperor Huan's reign, the internal shortcomings of the Eastern Han Dynasty were fully apparent, but heroes emerged on the grassland.
This is a figure similar to Temujin in later generations. Starting from an abandoned baby, Tan Shihuai climbed up step by step, and finally became the overlord who unified all Xianbei tribes.
For barbarians or people who admire barbarians, his experience is quite an inspirational story. But for the Central Plains at that time, Tanshihuai brought only nightmares and disasters.
Since Li Ling surrendered to the Xiongnu in the Western Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty's most tragic defeats against the grassland foreigners all occurred in the several invasion wars after Tan Shihuai unified Xianbei, especially the battle in the sixth year of Xiping.
At that time, Emperor Ling used Xianbei to seize border counties for successive years, and ordered the Wuhuan captain Xia Yu to protect him, and defeated the Xianbei lieutenant general Tian Yan.
, Yanmen went out of the fortress and attacked Xianbei in three groups.
"The Han army marched more than 2,000 miles from the fortress. Tan Shihuai, the leader of Xianbei, ordered the leaders of the East, Central and West tribes to lead their troops to fight separately. They won all three battles and defeated the Han army. Xia Yu and other troops lost all their supplies. Ten of the soldiers died.
Seven or eight, each of the three of them fled back with dozens of cavalry, all of whom were exempted from the crime of defeat and became common people... Alas, it was the old man who warned me about Xianbei's harm, which led to this great defeat."
With a look of sorrow on his face, Cai Yong sighed and said: "Afterwards, Xianbei's military strength became stronger, and all the troops and horses in the frontier fortress took Xia Yu as a warning, and they were trembling and did not dare to meet the enemy. The peace talks in the court were also noisy. In the end,
Your Majesty adopts Duan Yingzhi
He proposed to make him king, and then brought up the proposal of marriage to win over him. As a result, he flatly refused, causing the flames of the captives to become more intense. The situation was extremely difficult to control. If Tan Shihuai had not done too much evil and made the heart of heaven hate him, he would be killed.
Liao, sooner or later it will be a catastrophe."
Although Xia Yu and others were defeated, the war was in line with the consistent style of the Han Dynasty. Unlike the later Central Plains dynasties that just wanted to have no major troubles on the frontiers and just muddle along, the Han Dynasty's attitude towards the aliens in the grasslands had always been those who offended us.
Those who are far away will be killed.
Normally, it's up to you to make a small fuss. If you make too much noise, just wait for the Han army's strong counterattack. This is a tradition left over from the Han Dynasty and has been followed for hundreds of years.
However, if Cai Yong hadn't mentioned it, few people present would have known that behind the war, there was actually Cai Yong's promotion and the competition between various forces in the court.
Wang Yu listened to these ancient events in the court with great interest, but they were not the focus of Qingzhou Civil and Military Affairs. The real focus was the strength of the Xianbei people.
"Although Xia Yu and others are not famous generals, they are also veteran generals who have led troops for many years. They have been on the battlefield for many years and have rich experience. They also have all cavalry under their command and are well-equipped. However, they still suffered such a tragic defeat. The Hulu's combat power cannot be underestimated.
watch for."
"The key is their command and dispatch ability. According to Cai Zhonglang, the relationship between the captive chiefs and the tribes is not strictly superior and subordinate, let alone issuing orders and prohibitions. Hundreds or thousands of tribesmen are mobilized to encircle the cavalry on all sides.
Army, this kind of command and dispatch ability is really terrifying."
"However, according to what Cai Zhonglang said, after Tan Shihuai's death, didn't Xianbei fall into civil strife and attack each other? After Tan Shihuai came He Lian. He Lian was shot to death from behind, and his nephew Guitou became the leader, and then he
There is Qianman to contend with... At least for now, Xianbei shouldn't be much of a threat."
"I'm just afraid that someone will cause trouble. The barbarians are not stupid either. They have been fighting for so long without any result. At this time, if someone tells them that the Central Plains is already very weak and someone leads the way, you think they will continue.
Kill each other, or go south together?"
"Xu You really deserves to die. Why didn't you catch him in the first place?"
"Xu You alone is not something to be afraid of. He is just a man with a mouth. The barbarians will not accept his tricks. The key is Youzhou. Liu Yu is highly respected by the local wealthy families. Xianbei and Wuhuan also praise his character and prestige.
, if he causes harm, he will be a much greater threat than Xu You."
"So, my lord is sending troops not just to deal with Xianbei? If Xianbei doesn't come, will he send his troops to wipe out Liu Yu, show off his martial arts, and take advantage of the situation to establish the situation in Hebei? Well, this is a bit interesting. Up to now, Zhang
Generals Yan and Gongsun should have understood the situation. Whether it is military prowess or political development, they are beyond their reach. If they continue to be stubborn, they can only use personal ambition to explain it."
"Yes, the generals of Gongsun's army are flocking to Gaotang. Except for a few people such as Shan Jing, there will not be much hindrance to the two families uniting. This dispatch of troops may be a good time to pacify Hebei."
"In this case, we should act as soon as possible. The situation in Youzhou is becoming more and more tense day by day, and no one can predict when a fight will break out. If General Gongsun defeated Liu Yu first and the Xianbei people did not come, what would our army do?
Didn’t we lose the reason to send troops?”
"Everyone, everyone! Don't just say it with your mouth. The army has not moved. Food and grass go first. An army of 100,000 goes north. It costs so much. We have finally accumulated two years of harvest. Maybe we will fill it all in.
, is this what you want to see?"
"Zini's words are reasonable. In view of the current situation and in accordance with the slowdown strategy formulated by the lord before, it will take three to five years to pacify Hebei. It can be discussed calmly. The matter in Youzhou has not yet been decided, so I will send a general.
, just send an elite brigade northward, why do we need to go to war in such a big way?"
All the civil and military officials discussed it one after another, each holding his own opinion.
Wang Yu didn't know in advance what the Xianbei people were doing at the moment, but he knew that a hundred years later, Xianbei would become the main force in the Five Husties' rebellion against China, so he always regarded them as a serious problem.
After learning about the specific situation of Xianbei through Cai Yong, his worries deepened. During the Zhongping period, Zhongshan Prime Minister Zhang Chun rebelled and colluded with Xianbei. Wuhuan invaded in large numbers, which turned the four states of Hebei upside down. At that time, Zhang Chun colluded with
Xianbei is just a scattered tribe of Xianbei in the east.
The grasslands, like the Central Plains, are also in troubled times. The main forces of Xianbei are busy attacking each other and have no time to go south. It is conceivable that if the Xianbei people suddenly reach an agreement and go south together, the threat posed will definitely be greater than during the Zhongping period.
many.
When Gongsun Zan was attacking Zhang Chun, he already seemed to be clumsy. Now Liu Yu has a higher status and greater power than Zhang Chun. His reputation and appeal on the grassland are far beyond what the latter can match.
With Xu You as a troublemaker, can Gongsun Zan resist?
If he can't resist it and continues to entangle himself with Cao Cao, the most serious consequences will be that Wu Huan Hua will start in advance!
Therefore, after Lu Bu made his position clear, Wang Yu decided that An Nei must first concentrate his efforts on pacifying Youzhou after fighting against foreigners. The generals did not have much objection to this. It was a war anyway, but the enemies were different, but the civil servants
But they had many concerns, and they preferred Wang Yu's previous strategy.
After the Hebei War, because the Qingzhou Army needed time to digest the results of the war, the situation at that time was not enough for the Qingzhou Army to annex the two allies and eliminate Liu Yu, his opponent. Therefore, Wang Yu formulated a strategy of peaceful evolution and planned to spend a few years
, through development and bottom-up integration, solve the Hebei problem, and finally go to pacify Youzhou.
During this period, he will focus his main attack on Yanzhou to attack and weaken his closest enemy, Cao Cao.
But God's calculations are worse than those of humans. The princes are not puppets carved from clay and will not let Wang Yu do whatever he wants.
First, Cao Cao saw the crisis, abandoned most of Yanzhou and ran away, sending Lu Bu, a hot potato, to Dongjun. At the same time, Yuan Shu was not willing to be lonely, causing trouble in Xuzhou. Finally, and most importantly, Tao Qian suddenly died of illness.
, so Wang Yu had to put aside his Yanzhou strategy and Qingqi south to settle a lot of troubles in Jianghuai.
In the battle to pacify Xuzhou, Wang Yu had been reluctant to use the Taishan Army to fight south. In fact, this was because he did not intend to give up the Yanzhou strategy and was always ready to launch the Taishan and Yulin armies to launch a full-scale attack on Yanzhou.
Wang Yu's style has always been very direct. He fights battles quickly and gets to the key points. He also conquers a piece of territory and settles down quickly. He rarely engages in repeated tug-of-war.
The Yanzhou Strategy follows this principle and is therefore highly praised by civil servants who govern the country.
Therefore, although they understood the dangers of Xianbei through Cai Yong's speech and understood Wang Yu's mentality of putting more emphasis on external affairs than internal affairs, except for Jia Xu, the civil servants still did not support the Northern Expedition very much.
At that time, Emperor Wu launched a nationwide campaign to the north, and fought countless large-scale battles with more than 100,000 people, but still could not completely solve the problem of grassland barbarians. Although the Qingzhou Army is strong now, can it compare with that of Emperor Wu's era?
?Although there are many famous generals in the army, how many of them dare to claim to be better than Wei Huo and Li Guang?
In the northern expedition to Youzhou, the gains outweigh the losses.