Chapter 585: The Loyal and Righteous Man of the Han Dynasty Dong Zhongying
In the northwest of the Han Dynasty, Liangzhou is located.
There is always a vast and desolate scenery here. Grasslands, Gobi Desert and sand dunes seem endless at first glance, and are lined up in this narrow and long land.
The howling wind blew up dust all over the ground, and a gray fog covered the sky and the earth.
“Tatttatt.”
Countless hurried sounds of horse hooves were heard galloping in the dust. For a moment, it was unclear whether the dust was caused by the galloping of thousands of horses or by the strong wind.
If you count carefully, there are several thousand knights, but they are galloping with more than 20,000 horses. Liangzhou is worthy of being one of the horse-breeding areas of the Han Dynasty. Now the financial situation of the Han Dynasty can still allow one person to have four or five horses.
In the center of the knights stood a large banner with a big "Dong" inscribed on it. It was none other than Dong Zhuo, the Han Protector of the Qiang General, Dong Zhongying, the emperor's confidant, a senior Han official who commanded the military forces of the four counties in Hexi, and concurrently served as the Governor of Liangzhou.
Dong Zhuo's power was crucial in the northwest region. He was the governor of Liangzhou. Among the officials in the entire Liangzhou, his power was definitely among the top three, but he had military power over four counties, which made him the number one person in Liangzhou.
The emperor gave him this position, which showed his trust in Dong Zhuo.
The reason for this was mainly because Dong Zhuo came from a poor family in a remote county, and his father was just a small county lieutenant. His background could be said to be as low as it could be.
He was selected as an official for his filial and incorruptibility, was able to draw a strong bow, was extremely brave, and made many military achievements in Liang Province. Although he had been recommended by scholars, he fell out with them early on.
He rose to power through the connections of eunuchs.
Because the emperor hated scholars, he promoted Dong Zhuo and made important use of him. When Dong Zhuo bought an official position, the emperor also reduced the fee for him by 30%. Dong Zhuo only wanted to stand out, so he was naturally ecstatic.
Dong Zhuo or the entire Liangzhou warriors, or if the scope is larger, the warriors from the Western Regions can also be included.
These people are not so respectful of imperial power.
So what if he's the emperor?
Would the Hu people cut less?
When people have no reverence for imperial power, they have even less identification with the so-called dual monarchy.
The scholar who recommended Dong Zhuo saw this point, so he became disgusted with him and no longer had any dealings with him.
These Liangzhou warriors are typical people who only recognize the knives in their hands. If the emperor knew this, I wonder if he would still use Dong Zhuo.
As the General Protector of the Qiang and the Governor of Liang Province, Dong Zhuo had a lot of important matters to deal with.
Liangzhou has always been a place where Han and Qiang people live together. It was not prominent before because the world's elite were stationed in Chang'an.
After the capital was moved to Luoyang, the court's attention was no longer focused on the northwest, and chaos gradually began to occur. There were two main reasons for this.
On the one hand, there are conflicts between the Qiang people and the Han people.
The Han and Qiang are truly of the same origin, especially for the Zhou clan like the Luo family, but now is no longer the era of the Zhou clan, but the world of the Han people.
On the other hand, border warriors deliberately caused trouble in order to seek credit and reward.
This is actually a very common thing. What is the ultimate goal of border warriors?
Is the border peaceful and the country prosperous and the people safe?
Of course not!
Except for a few highly conscious generals, anyone who believes that these warriors serve the country and the people is a traitor.
The only goal of guarding the border is to make merit and gain 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 might even think that this was a good opportunity to gain merit and turn the tables, and they were ungrateful.
But in reality, most people don't want to fight.
Therefore, provoking border conflicts without authorization has always been criticized.
Because this is actually equivalent to abusing power for personal gain, using the country's resources and other people's lives to facilitate one's own path to becoming an official.
Since Dong Zhuo entered the officialdom, he had only one goal, which was to keep climbing up.
Although he didn't know how high he had to climb to, but given his current position, neither the governor nor even the prefect could satisfy him.
It would be reasonable to have a provincial governor, just like when Chen Fan was appointed as the governor of Youzhou and went into Youzhou alone to fight against the Kingdom of Eastern Yan.
The only problem is that the Han court had the Three Mutual Method, which was extremely complicated and included various calculations such as in-laws, but the original Three Mutual Method was very simple.
That is, officials are not allowed to serve as the highest official in their native place, that is, they are not allowed to serve as county magistrate in their own county, they are not allowed to serve as prefect in their own county, and they are not allowed to serve as governor in their own state.
Dong Zhuo was from Liangzhou, and according to the Three Mutual Laws he could not be the governor of Liangzhou, which made Dong Zhuo a little worried.
During Dong Zhuo's rise, there were too many such incidents of provoking wars. He not only fought against the Qiang people, but also fought against the Western Regions.
As long as the rulers of the Western Regions disobeyed him, he would accuse them of being rebels and then attack them directly.
The imperial court's attitude towards the Western Regions was already bad. After all, there were two vassal kingdoms of the Liu family in the Western Regions. Relying on the fact that the emperor was far away, they only obeyed the imperial court on the surface, but in fact did not take the imperial court seriously.
The entire Han Dynasty turned a blind eye to Dong Zhuo's attacks on the Western Regions, and it was somewhat extraordinary for a general with a miscellaneous title like the General of Protector of the Qiang to do such a thing.
In fact, there was a professional who did this in the Han Dynasty. He was called the General Who Conquers the West. He was an important general in the Han court, only below the general, the general of the cavalry, the general of the brave cavalry, and the general of the chariots and cavalry. It was basically one of the highest-level general titles that could be obtained by non-relatives of the emperor or members of the royal family.
This time, Dong Zhuo led a large army and was planning to cross the Yumen Pass and attack the vassal states in the Western Regions along the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains. However, the Taiping Rebellion that suddenly broke out in the Central Plains forced him to return with his army.
He was worried that other powerful people in Liang Province would join forces with the Qiang people in rebellion. After all, Dong Zhuo himself knew very well how deeply these Qiang people were oppressed.
These Qiang tribes were his private lands and his money bags. With these Qiang people around, not only would the imperial court's funding continue to flow in, but he could also draw blood from these tribes to strengthen his own strength. Dong Zhuo would never give them to other people.
Moreover, how could Dong Zhuo not be excited about such good news as the chaos in the Central Plains?
There are endless opportunities in troubled times, especially for someone like him who comes from a humble family. How can he compete with the wealthy if the world is not in chaos?
Dong Zhuo now wished that the Central Plains would become more chaotic. He continued to strengthen himself in Liang Province, and then led the Liang Province army eastward to Luoyang, reaching the peak of his life.
This was the plan set for him by his chief strategist Li Ru, and Dong Zhuo had almost 100% trust in Li Ru's talents.
After all, he had come all the way from a warrior in a border county to where he was now, almost reaching the pinnacle of Han warriors. Moreover, the elite Xiliang Iron Cavalry under his command was probably only comparable to the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry and the Youyan elite.
But the number of Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry and Youyan elite troops was too small, while the number of Xiliang Iron Cavalry was too large. If he had money, he could have assembled an elite cavalry of 100,000 people.
"My Lord!"
From afar, a team of about a hundred knights came towards them. Dong Zhuo saw them from afar and knew that it was his chief strategist Li Ru.
He laughed loudly and rode out of the line, saying in a loud voice: "Wenyou, after receiving your letter, I rushed back immediately. I hope I didn't miss anything important."
Li Ru had a hint of hostility in his eyes, and his whole body was a little cold. He smiled and said, "My lord, you have returned in time. The great cause is already halfway accomplished."
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Dong Zhuo, courtesy name Zhongying, was from Longxi. He was brave and strong since he was young, and had both military talents and was a chivalrous man. He was selected as a filial and honest official and then served in Liangzhou. With this foundation, he became famous. - "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Dong Zhuo in Xiliang"
(End of this chapter)
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