Zhuge Liang was not surprised when the Qiang people rebelled.
Ever since Ma Chao died of illness at the beginning of the second year of Jianxing, the Qiang people have been very restless. Coupled with two years of snowstorms, the Qiang people can no longer live, and it is normal for the Qiang people to cause chaos.
But Zhuge Liang did not expect that the Qiang people in Qinzhou would gather hundreds of thousands of people to rebel this time, and Jiang Xu could only hold on to Tianshui County in the end and call for help urgently.
Although the Qiang people are powerful in battle, they are still inferior to other foreign races. For the Han people, the Qiang people are ultimately the weak side.
There is no authoritative common leader among the Qiang people, and there is no possibility of unifying the Qiang tribe's combat power. Such a big uproar was indeed beyond Zhuge Liang's expectation.
The most important thing is that the Qiang people are in such chaos, which completely breaks Zhuge Liang's national policy of recuperation.
For a small fight, you can use the strategy of suppression and appeasement, but for such a large-scale rebellion and plundering the Hanzhou counties, you must beat them first and then consider appeasing them. Otherwise, the power of the Han Dynasty will not exist.
So the key question is still this-how to quell this Qiang rebellion.
Due to Guan Yu's unstable condition, Jingzhou was temporarily unable to control the overall situation and was in a chaotic period of power transfer.
To this day, the relationship between Soochow and Dahan is still semi-hostile and should not be taken lightly.
As for Yongzhou, since Cao Rui succeeded to the throne, the harassment of Yongzhou has intensified. It can be seen that this Cao Rui, at least in terms of strategic vision, is not as weak as his father Cao Pi, and may even be stronger.
Once Cao Wei and Dongwu learn about the Qiang rebellion in Qinzhou, they will definitely choose to take advantage of the situation. Therefore, not only cannot the troops of Yongzhou and Jingzhou be mobilized, but they must also notify Zhang Xi and Xu Shu to strengthen their alert.
At the same time, from the perspective of the Han Dynasty, this rebellion must be put down as soon as possible. It cannot be delayed for too long, otherwise it will affect the current national policy of the Han Dynasty to recuperate and recuperate.
Not to mention, there is a cavalry general in the Han Dynasty urging the Northern Expedition. If too much money, food and time are wasted on the Qiang people and the process of the Northern Expedition is delayed, Zhang Fei will definitely not give up easily.
With the external environment being like this, Zhuge Liang had to quickly quell the Qiang rebellion, and at the same time, he could not mobilize too many troops.
As for the internal environment, Zhuge Liang searched around Chengdu, but found that Chengdu today lacked suitable generals who could lead an expedition.
Zhang Fei can do it, but the problem is that Zhang Fei is already over sixty and there is no room for failure.
Furthermore, there is no problem if you let Zhang Fei lead the army to suppress the rebellion, but after the war, it is necessary to stabilize the place and appease the Qiang people. This is not what Zhang Fei is good at.
If we had to wait another two months, until Li Hui, the commander-in-chief of the surrender, resigned from Nanzhong and returned to Chengdu, it would be okay for Li Hui to lead the army on the expedition.
Li Hui has many years of experience in sitting in the local area and pacifying the barbarians, and his own military command ability has been tested in actual combat. He is a good candidate for the counter-insurgency commander.
However, Li Hui is from Jianning. He has the network advantage to guard Nanzhong and is adapted to the local climate. He is indeed a good candidate, but the northwest is different.
Li Hui's health has not been very good in the past few years. If he is asked to lead troops northward as a southerner, let alone whether he can suppress the rebellion. Whether he can adapt to the local climate is another question.
Another thing is that it will take Li Hui two months to return to Chengdu and a month to send troops. If the weather does not cooperate and there is another snowstorm in Qinzhou this year, it will not be conducive to march directly.
With such delays, it will be delayed by at least half a year. I don't know if Jiang Xu can hold on in Tianshui County.
Wu Yi, the Central Protector, controlled the Southern Army and defended the emperor. He could not easily leave the emperor's vicinity. Unless the emperor personally led the expedition, he was not suitable to lead the army.
The remaining people are just Feng Xi, Zhang Nan, Fu Wei, Yang Qun and others. They can be generals, but not commanders.
The Qiang people's rebellion was actually not a big deal, but judging from the current situation, Zhuge Liang was really undecided for a while.
Should Jiang Xu hold on to Tianshui and survive the winter, and wait until spring next year before Li Hui returns to Chengdu before sending out troops, or should he send out troops immediately for rescue, with Zhang Fei leading the expedition? !
None of them are perfect decisions, and each has its own shortcomings.
Zhuge Liang had already discussed the strategy of quelling the Qiang with Fazheng and Pang Tong. The two men insisted on quelling the rebellion quickly, and Zhuge Liang also recognized this.
But Fazheng and Pang Tong didn't have any good ideas about who should be the commander-in-chief.
Even Pang Tong looked worried and said that if it was not possible, let him take command and go on an expedition. After all, he followed the late emperor all the way to Sichuan back then. Although he did not take charge of his own affairs, he always had military experience.
When Pang Tong said this, Fazheng's eyes suddenly lit up.
It's not that Fazheng agrees with Pang Tong's idea. If Pang Tong's experience can be regarded as leading an army, then after going through the Battle of Hanzhong, can't he also be said to have experience in leading an army? !
Fazheng is not so ignorant of military knowledge. Being a staff officer and being a commander are completely different concepts.
Therefore, he did not agree with Pang Tong's idea of taking command and going on an expedition.
But Fazheng thought of someone.
When the late emperor entered Sichuan and blocked Luocheng with troops, there was a man who led the Jingzhou army to Sichuan to aid, pushing down all the counties in Yizhou and completing the complete siege of Chengdu.
Well, I’m talking about Zhuge Liang.
In fact, when it comes to the experience of leading an army alone, Fazheng believes that Zhuge Liang's rescue operation in Sichuan was the true sense of leading an army alone.
But the problem is that now that Zhuge Liang is the prime minister, he shoulders the important task of leading the government and is the least suitable candidate to lead troops on an expedition.
Another one. Is Zhuge Liang really willing to leave Chengdu and go north to quell the rebellion? !
You know, in Chengdu, Zhuge Liang is the leader of the officials, and his prestige is growing day by day.
Once the Northern Expedition goes well, it will only add some prestige to Zhuge Liang's rule. But if the war goes wrong and the Qiang soldiers cannot be quickly pacified, it will also have a huge blow to Zhuge Liang's prestige.
Zhuge Liang had no need to take this risk.
Therefore, although Fazheng thought about it, he still did not speak and expressed his truest thoughts.
But the problem is, Zhuge Liang is not a fool.
Pang Tong's words not only inspired Fazheng, Zhuge Liang also thought of some of his early experiences in commanding troops.
When it comes to commanding tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, in Chengdu today, apart from Zhang Fei, he is the only one with experience.
To be honest, Zhuge Liang has none of Fa Zheng's worries.
Only powerful officials with evil intentions would think of sitting in the capital and controlling all power. Neither Zhuge Liang in history nor Zhuge Liang today has this idea.
In terms of government affairs, we can leave it to Pang Tong, Fazheng, Dong He, Qin Mi and others, and with Zhang Yi's assistance, there shouldn't be much of a problem.
Putting down the Qiang rebellion requires a quick victory. As long as you can advance smoothly, the difficulty of fighting the Qiang people is actually no more difficult than entering Sichuan.
What's more, as long as he leads his troops into Guanzhong, Li Yan in Hanzhong, Zhao Yun in Liangzhou, and even Zhang Xi in Guanzhong can all be his helpers. Even if he can't mobilize them all to counter the rebellion, at least he will have someone to help him as a staff. This can greatly reduce the risks caused by your own inexperience in leading troops.
Finally, and most importantly, Zhuge Liang himself also wanted to accumulate military experience.
The Central Plains is too far away from Shu. In the future Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, Zhuge Liang, as prime minister, will not be able to stay in Chengdu because it is too far behind.
Communication efficiency in this era is low. Whether he sends troops to the Northern Expedition from Guanzhong or from Jingzhou, Zhuge Liang must have an overview of the overall situation of the Northern Expedition. If he stays in Chengdu, the news will be too late, which is not conducive to decision-making.
Therefore, by that time, Zhuge Liang will definitely lead his army northward, and may even visit Guanzhong in person to make decisions on the spot.
Once the Central Plains is attacked, this is one of the core areas of Cao Wei. Cao Wei has been in business for many years. The Han Dynasty lacks the advantages of location and people, and has a lower error tolerance rate. Zhuge Liang is not allowed to practice on such a major event as the Northern Expedition.
It just so happened that this time we could take advantage of the Qiang people's rebellion to practice their skills, so that when the Northern Expedition was really needed, Zhuge Liang would act unprepared and delay the Northern Expedition.
After much thought, Zhuge Liang finally decided that Fazheng would be in charge of Chengdu and assist the emperor in handling government affairs, while Zhang Fei would stay behind to control the southern army and protect the emperor's safety.
He personally led the troops on the expedition, worshiped Pang Tong as his military advisor, and Wu Yi as the front commander. He led Zhang Nan, Feng Xi, Fu Xu, Jiang Wei, Ma Di and other generals to march into Hanzhong and go north to quell the rebellion.
When the news came out, everyone was shocked.
No one expected that the dignified Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty would personally lead an army to fight for the rebellion of the Hu people in a certain place. It was too much for Meng Lang.
What should I do if something goes wrong? !
It was inevitable that courtiers would come to visit him in person to persuade Zhuge Liang to give up the idea of camping. Of course, many of them really felt that Zhuge Liang was too reckless, such as Dong He, Yu Fan and others. They felt that Zhuge Liang, as prime minister, had left the government affairs behind. , suddenly leading troops to fight against the rebellion, is putting the cart before the horse.
But there are also some people who are somewhat selfish, such as Qin Mi and Qiao Zhou.
The people of Yizhou were really afraid, fearing that Zhuge Liang's personal expedition this time would have a bad omen.
In the past two years, Zhuge Liang sided with the Yizhou family and supported the national policy proposal for the Yizhou family to recuperate and recuperate, giving the Yizhou family a chance to breathe.
This time, Zhuge Liang actually led the troops to put down the rebellion in person. Does this mean that Zhuge Liang has given up the national policy of recuperation and started to support the strategy of foreign conquests? !
This is not good news for the Yizhou families. After finally breathing a sigh of relief, they have not had time to make money, and now they have to pay again? !
Therefore, Qin Mi and Qiao Zhou's advice was somewhat selfish, and they wanted to test Zhuge Liang's attitude.
These people, whether out of public or selfish motives, were blocked by Zhuge Liang.
Regarding this matter, Zhuge Liang has reached an agreement with Fa Zheng and Pang Tong, and successfully persuaded Zhang Fei. He obtained Zhang Fei's consent and gave the Northern Army's tiger talisman. So it doesn't matter what the opinions of the remaining people are. .
This is imperative.
In this way, in late October of the fourth year of Jianxing, Zhuge Liang sent troops in Chengdu and led the 30,000 Northern Han Army to the north. They entered Hanzhong first, joined Li Yan's troops in Hanzhong, and marched north to Guanzhong to quell the Qiang rebellion.
(End of chapter)
