The northwest of Han Dynasty is where Liangzhou is located.
There is always a vast and vast scenery here. Grassland, Gobi, and sand dunes seem endless at first glance, arranged in rows and rows on this narrow land.
The strong wind roared, rolling up smoke and dust all over the ground, and the sky and the earth were covered with gray fog.
"Ta-ta-ta-ta."
Countless rapid sounds of horse hooves galloped among the wind and dust. It was unclear whether the raised dust was caused by the galloping horses or the strong wind.
Counting it carefully, there are thousands of knights, but they are galloping with more than 20,000 horses. Liangzhou is indeed one of the horse breeding places of the Han Dynasty. With the current financial situation of the Han Dynasty, one person can still have four horses and five horses.
In the center of the knights stood a large scroll with a big word "Dong" written on it. It was Dong Zhuo, Dong Zhongying, the general of the Han Dynasty who protected the Qiang. He was a confidant of the emperor, an important official of the Han Dynasty who controlled the army and horses of the four counties in Hexi, and also served as the governor of Liangzhou.
Dong Zhuo's power is very important in the northwest region. He is the governor of Liangzhou. Among the officials in Liangzhou, his power can definitely be ranked among the top three. However, he has military power in four counties, which makes him the No. 1 official in Liangzhou. one person.
The emperor entrusted this position to him, which shows his trust in Dong Zhuo.
The reason for this is mainly because Dong Zhuo came from a poor family in the surrounding county. His father was just a small county captain. This background can be said to be extremely low.
He was a filial and honest man who served as an official, could shoot a strong bow, was extremely brave, and made many military exploits in Liangzhou. Although he was recommended by the scholars, he fell out with them early.
Get to the top by taking the eunuch's route.
Because he disliked scholars, the emperor promoted Dong Zhuo and reused him. When Dong Zhuo bought an official position, he also reduced Dong Zhuo's fees by 30%. Dong Zhuo just wanted to get ahead, so he was naturally ecstatic.
Dong Zhuo or the entire Liangzhou warriors, if the scope is wider, the warriors from the Western Regions can also be included.
These people do not have that much respect for the imperial power.
What about the emperor?
Will the barbarians cut one less knife?
Without awe of the imperial power, there was even less recognition of the so-called dual monarch.
The scholars who recommended Dong Zhuo saw this, so they hated him and stopped having any contact with Dong Zhuo.
These Liangzhou warriors typically only recognized the knife in their hands. If the emperor knew this, I wonder if he would reuse Dong Zhuo.
As the general who protected Qiang and the governor of Liangzhou, Dong Zhuo had a lot to do with him.
Liangzhou has always been home to Han and Qiang people. It was not obvious before because Chang'an stationed elites from all over the world.
After the capital was moved to Luoyang, the court's attention no longer focused on the northwest, and chaos gradually began. There were two main reasons.
On the one hand, there are conflicts between the Qiang and Han people.
The Han and Qiang people are truly of the same origin, especially for the Zhou people like the Luo family, but now it is no longer the world of the Zhou people, but the world of the Han people.
On the other hand, border warriors deliberately cause trouble in order to claim credit and reward.
This is actually a very common thing. What is the ultimate goal of border warriors?
Is it peace on the border and peace on the country and the people?
of course not!
Except for a few generals with extremely high consciousness, whoever believes that these warriors serve the country and the people is a traitor.
The only goal of guarding the border is to perform meritorious service and seize the capital for promotion in the war. If there is no war, then start a war yourself.
As for those who died after provoking the war, these warriors would not care. They would even think that this was a good opportunity to make a comeback, and they did not know what was good or bad.
But in fact, most people are unwilling to fight.
Therefore, being provocative has always been criticized.
Because this is actually equivalent to using power for personal gain, using the country's resources and the lives of others to further one's career as a public minister.
Ever since Dong Zhuo became an official, he had only one goal, and that was to keep climbing up.
Although he didn't know how far he would reach the end, but with his current status, neither the governor nor the prefect could satisfy him.
It is reasonable to have a state pastor, just like when Chen Fan was appointed as the Youzhou pastor and went to Youzhou alone to fight against the Dongyan Kingdom.
The only problem is that the Han Dynasty has three mutual laws. The so-called three mutual laws are extremely complicated and include various calculations such as in-laws and so on. But the initial three mutual laws are very simple.
That is to say, officials are not allowed to serve as the highest official in their place of birth, that is, they are not allowed to serve as county magistrate, prefect, or state pastor in their own county.
Dong Zhuo is from Liangzhou. According to the Three Mutual Laws, he cannot be the shepherd of Liangzhou, which makes Dong Zhuo a little worried.
During the rise of Dong Zhuo, there were too many things that provoked wars. He not only fought with the Qiang people, but also fought with the Western Regions.
As long as the leader of the Western Region disobeys him, he will label him as a rebel and attack him directly.
The imperial court's attitude towards the Western Regions was not good. After all, there were still two vassal kingdoms of the Liu family in the Western Regions. They relied on Tiangao and Emperor Yuan to obey the imperial court on the surface, but in fact they did not take the imperial court seriously.
The entire Han Dynasty turned a blind eye to Dong Zhuo's attack on the Western Regions. A general like General Hu Qiang was a little out of line in doing this.
In fact, there was a person who specialized in doing this in the Han Dynasty, called General Zhengxi. He was an important general in the Han court. He was only under the generals, generals of hussars, generals of valiant cavalry, and generals of chariots and cavalry. They were basically non-relatives. , one of the highest-level general titles a clan can obtain.
Dong Zhuo was leading the army this time. He was planning to cross the Yumen Pass and attack the Western Regions along the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains. However, the sudden outbreak of the Taiping Army uprising in the Central Plains forced him to return with the army.
He was worried that other powerful people in Liangzhou would join forces with the Qiang people to rebel. After all, Dong Zhuo himself knew how deeply the Qiang people were exploited.
These Qiang tribes are his private land and his money bag. With these Qiang people here, the court's allocations are endless, and Dong Zhuo can draw blood from these tribes to increase his own strength. It is absolutely impossible for Dong Zhuo For others.
Moreover, how could Dong Zhuo not be excited about such good news as the chaos in the Central Plains?
Taking chestnuts from the fire, there are unlimited opportunities in troubled times, especially for someone like him who comes from a poor family and the world is not in chaos, how can he compete with the wealthy families.
Dong Zhuo now wished that the Central Plains would be more chaotic. He continued to strengthen himself in Liangzhou, and then led the Liangzhou army eastward to Luoyang and reached the peak of his life.
This was the plan set by his chief adviser Li Ru. Dong Zhuo had almost 100% trust in Li Ru's intelligence.
After all, he has come all the way from a border warrior to the present, and is almost reaching the pinnacle of the Han warriors. Moreover, the elite Xiliang cavalry under his command can only be compared to the elite Bingzhou wolf cavalry and Youyan elite.
But the number of Bingzhou wolf cavalry and Youyan elites was too small, and the number of Xiliang cavalry was too many. If it weren't for the lack of money, he could pull out an elite cavalry of 100,000 people.
"Lord!"
From a distance, a team of about a hundred knights came forward. When Dong Zhuo saw it from a distance, he knew it was his chief adviser Li Ru.
He immediately laughed and rode out of the queue, saying loudly: "Wen You, after receiving your letter, the general rushed back immediately. I didn't delay the important matter."
Li Ru had a trace of venom in his eyes and a slight chill in his whole body. He smiled and said, "My lord turned back in time, and the great cause is already half done."
————
Dong Zhuo, courtesy name Zhongying, was a native of Longxi. He had little courage, but was also talented in martial arts. He was also a heroic knight. He promoted filial piety and integrity. He then served in Liangzhou and prospered based on this foundation. ——"Book of the Later Han·Biography of Dong Zhuo"
(End of chapter)
