Autumn and August, Yulin Road, Yanzhou.
Yanzhou is located in the south of Yulin Road, bordering Lingzhou to the west and Xiayou to the east. It is one of the most important military towns in the northwest of the Han Dynasty. As early as thirty years ago, the imperial court began to operate this place. When Emperor Liu was concentrating on unification and unable to go west, Yanzhou was the most important fulcrum for the imperial court to maintain its rule over the northwest and monitor the parties.
Wang Yansheng once sat here for ten years. The reputation of "General Er" is still spread in the local area, and the faces of the barbarians change after hearing this. The organization of the Dingbian Army trained by Wang Yansheng remains the same. Although the soldiers have changed several times, its spirit and tradition have been preserved.
Nowadays, due to Li Jiqian's rebellion, Dangxiang's disunity, the whole Yulin is a little unstable, but Yanzhou has always been stable, and the three thousand Dingbian troops have obviously played a great deterrent effect.
Of course, the capital's fierce pursuit of Li Ni and the suppression of the rebellion so far have been dominated by Xiazhou soldiers and horses, and the Dingbian army has not been called in. This is also one of the reasons.
After thirty years of operation, the imperial court's rule over Yanzhou is still very strong. The immigration policy that was strongly implemented at that time resulted in a large number of relocations, and their destination was Yanzhou.
Over and over, more than 3,000 households of Han people immigrated to Yanzhou. This number is insignificant when viewed from the perspective of the entire immigrant population, but it is not a small number for a state. The importance that the imperial court attached to Yanzhou can be seen. Some outlying counties and counties received immigrants ranging from a thousand households to hundreds of households. In the entire Yulin, Xiazhou and Lingzhou were slightly better than Yanzhou.
Including some exiled sinners, Han remnants, and natural growth over the years, by the 21st year of Kaibao, the number of local Han people in Yanzhou had exceeded 60,000.
Taking into account the party members and barbarians within the territory, the population of Yanzhou exceeds 300,000, which is already a considerable achievement in the remote Yulin. This population size is ranked high even in the densely populated Central Plains region, and it is even more valuable in the Yulin region.
Of course, the population distribution of the entire Yulin Road basically revolves around the five states of Xia, Ling, Yan, Yin, and Sui. However, looking at the entire Yulin Road, the total population is less than two million. This is despite the fact that there are immigrants from the imperial court. on the basis of.
For this reason, Yulin Dao once petitioned the imperial court, hoping that the southern Huan, Qing, and Yanzhou states would be placed under the jurisdiction of Yulin. However, the imperial court failed to express its position on this point, which aroused a strong backlash from the Guannai Dao, and ultimately nothing was done.
According to Emperor Liu's idea, Yulin Road was set up for three purposes. The first was to pacify the barbarians, the second was to defend Qinlong, and the third was to improve administrative efficiency. Naturally, it was necessary to travel lightly, even without considering the opinions of Guannei Road. Agree to expand jurisdiction.
Returning to Yanzhou, this place has some of the most significant problems in Yulin and even the northwest region. Hu and Han people live together, and ethnic conflicts have not been alleviated with the passage of time, but have become increasingly serious.
Yanzhou's jurisdiction covers more than 10,000 square kilometers. In such a large area, even though there are many sandy deserts, there is also a lot of land suitable for farming and grazing. There is no problem in supporting 300,000 people.
What's more, in the name of salt and because of its benefits, as the most important green and white salt production area in the northwest, in the past twenty years, its economy has been prosperous, ranking among the best in Yulin, and no worse than Xia and Lingzhou.
However, Qingbai Salt, the financial source that Dangxiang people relied on the most in the past, was controlled by the government. This was a forced cut of Dangxiang people's flesh, from salt suppliers to salt buyers.
Even if the imperial court later banned the salt industry, the benefits were still occupied by the powerful and Han merchants, and it was difficult for the Dangxiang people to get a piece of the pie. This was one of the fundamental reasons why the Dangxiang people were dissatisfied with the court. There is nothing more profound than the dispute over interests. contradiction.
The influx of a large number of Han people has actually compressed the soil for the survival of Dangxiang people. Compared with the ethnic policies that destroyed Dangxiang tradition, these two are the fundamental ethnic contradictions in Yulin.
In Yulin Road, there have always been first-class officials, second-class Han, third-class Dangxiang, and fourth-class miscreants. This is the class in the eyes of Dangxiang people. But in fact, in the eyes of the Han people, the Dangxiang people are only among the barbarians, no different from those miscellaneous barbarians.
Not to mention those miscellaneous things. When the party was strong, they relied on others, but now they just changed their masters. Secondly, under the rule of the Han government, their survival crisis has been alleviated. At least, what the Han people can provide It is much richer than during the Dangxiang period.
The only ones who are embarrassed and have a huge psychological gap are the party members. Of course, some criminals who were forced to move to local areas and were exiled were in the minority.
The local Dangxiang people in Yanzhou are mainly composed of Pingxia tribes, supplemented by a considerable number of Tuoba tribes. The rise of the Li family relied on these Dongshan tribal alliances. Even though times have changed and the world has changed, the Tuoba Li family's influence in the local area There is still a little influence left among the party members.
Of course, this impact must be viewed in light of the current situation and environment. In fact, when the news of Li Jiqian's rebellion came, there was some response among the party members in Yanzhou.
Li Jiqian, under the banner of independent rejuvenation of the Dangxiang, is really attractive to today's Dangxiang people. After the entire Li family was taken to Tokyo and beheaded, Li Jiqian has become the most popular and upright successor of the Tuoba Li family. .
Last year, because of Li Jiqian's rebellion, the imperial court adopted a cruel treatment against the Tuoba Li family. Hundreds of members of his clan were all captured. All the Li family members, old and young, and direct descendants, including the clan leader Li Jipeng, were executed. , only a few people saw the opportunity quickly and escaped anonymously.
The scale of executions was larger than any of the Han Dynasty's attempts to clean up corrupt officials. Of course, the bloodshed and profound impact were similar.
Not only did this news spread to Yulin, it certainly frightened many people who were ready to take action. It also aroused some sympathy for the Tuoba Li family. Behind this sympathy, it represented support for Li Jiqian.
Not long ago, a rumor suddenly arose among the Dangxiang people in Yanzhou that the imperial court planned to exterminate all the Dangxiang people. This caused panic. Although the Yanzhou government found some well-known clan elders. They come forward to appease a little, but the power of rumors lies in their occupation of people's hearts.
Now in Yulin, the party members no longer have much trust in the imperial court, and their alienation has reached a dangerous edge. Therefore, the atmosphere in Yanzhou in the past six months has been just like Xia Yin's place, eerie and depressing.
In fact, by now, the upper-class people in Yulin have realized that the chaos in Yulin is not caused by Li Jiqian, but by Dangxiang. Why did Li Jiqian attack and suppress the army repeatedly? Even after suffering two disastrous defeats, he was still making trouble. The crux of the matter was the party tribes who were alienated from the imperial court.
If the problem of the party members is not resolved, even if one Li Jiqian is eliminated, another one will appear. What's more, this Li Jiqian is still stubbornly persisting.
In June of this year, feeling that the situation was difficult and that the anti-Han cause was experiencing a serious crisis, Li Jiqian led his remaining 600 cavalry to go south again, harassing Xiazhou and attacking Hengshan Fort on the edge of the Mingtang River in order to break the situation.
Since Xiazhou was the area with the strongest Han army, many of his subordinates opposed this idea. They suggested attacking Fengzhou or Shengzhou northward, but Li Jiqian refused and decided to attack Xiazhou.
Li Jiqian also knew very well that if he wanted to succeed, the only people he could rely on were party members. If he could not mobilize hundreds of thousands of party members, then no matter how happy he danced, he would be just a clown, and his blow to the court would only be It's so far away.
After the attack on Dijinze, not only did the rebel forces suffer an almost devastating blow, but the confidence of the party members also began to decline.
Under such circumstances, Li Jiqian had no choice but to risk going south. His goal was not to kill as many Han troops or plunder as many Han people as he wanted, but to prove to the party members in Xiazhou that Li Jiqian had not been wiped out by the Han troops and that he was still there. Adhere to the great cause of resisting the Han Dynasty.
Therefore, after Li Jiqian lost more than a dozen lives in the battle of Hengshan Fort, he quickly withdrew north before the encirclement and suppression of the Han army arrived.
The Han army did not lose anything, and Hengshan Fort even got credit for beheading more than a dozen people. However, Duke Yan of Yan State became a little angry. Now, he was feeling increasing pressure. Emperor Liu's gaze seemed to be able to travel two thousand miles and land directly on him, making him shudder.
However, although he was able to defeat the rebels every time and achieved considerable results before and after, the current situation really made Wang Qian feel like he was having a knot in his throat, and the order from Tokyo made him feel like he was sitting on pins and needles.
In particular, Li Jiqian's bold trip south further proved his resurgence. For this reason, Wang Qian had to mobilize his troops and carry out another encirclement and suppression campaign.
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At the moment, the entire Yulin, except for Fengsheng in the far north, the rest of the places where party members live are in a sensitive and tense atmosphere, and the same is true here in Yanzhou.
However, except for Xiazhou, where Wang Qian presided over the suppression of Li Ni, the other prefectures and counties were in a state of self-defense, suppressing local areas, appeasing the people, and closely monitoring the party members.
Taking Yanzhou as an example, the Dingbian Army has been canceling its vacation for a long time. In addition to deploying its troops in Yanchi and Zhoucheng, it is patrolling everywhere.
Due to the shortage of manpower, the Han people and Zahuzhong even recruited a group of militiamen to monitor party items and maintain stability. This kind of differentiated treatment is too obvious, how can you not feel it.
In fact, it would be impossible if all the party members in Yulin were rebellious and supported Li Jiqian's rebellion. It can be said that at least half of the people feel that it has nothing to do with me. Although the interests of the nation have been violated, few people will take violent resistance until the rope is tightened around their necks.
Even if there are some sympathizers left, there are not many who are willing to follow Li Jiqian. There are only a few real radicals. However, in a large environment, a small group of people can stir up collective emotions.
Party members in Yanzhou are becoming increasingly unstable, and so is Yulin Road.
