Chapter 146: Be at Peace with Yourself First
The saying "I will not allow others to sleep soundly beside my bed" has always been true.
Before, she could maintain a "peaceful" relationship with Han Fu. In the final analysis, it was because Han Fu, the General Du Liao, was appointed by Liu Hong and should be considered to be in the same camp as her.
As the governor of Bingzhou, theoretically she did need a General Du Liao to assist her in controlling the border.
But Qiao Yan was indeed an unusual governor.
Even though the border areas were still facing invasions by the Hu people a few years ago, by now, the generals under her command are able to completely cover the entire Bingzhou, which is more than enough. So Han Fu, the General Du Liao, is no different from a decoration.
He should even be considered an unstable decoration.
As Qiao Yan said quite frankly in his subsequent chat with Guo Yu: "In the early days of the campaign against Dong Zhuo, this man pretended to be sick. It was not until Yuan Benchu and others initiated the Suanzao Alliance that he began to be eager to respond. It can be seen that he is not on the same page with us. He could do such a thing yesterday. Today, Yuan Benchu supports the prince to argue in Yecheng. Who knows what he will do tomorrow?"
So Han Fu must not be in this position!
But in the name of justice, Qiao Yan could only accuse Han Fu of "being away from home and intending to do something illegal" when Han Fu showed that he wanted to follow Yuan Shao's call. She could not directly use the military power in her hands to kill Han Fu or expel him from the country, otherwise she would be pretending to be a Han minister but actually separatist in Bingzhou.
However, this was not too troublesome for Qiao Yan.
Ever since Xu Shu, the Wuyuan County official, took office and performed the actual supervisory duties and formed a civil and military combination with Xu Huang, who was on the Yinshan Guyang Road defense line on the Wuyuan border, he realized that legitimately seizing power from Han Fu might not be as difficult as he had imagined.
Qiao Yan once said that Han Fu was a bit suspicious, and that this suspicion was his own fault rather than blaming others, and he was not wrong.
Logically speaking, this should not be a trait displayed by someone with his resume, but it is hard to say for sure. It is precisely because of the support of noble people that he is in a state of extreme insecurity in his abilities.
After all, this was the state he showed in front of Xu Shu.
Therefore, Xu Shu applied to Qiao Yan that he needed to temporarily recruit soldiers in Wuyuan County.
As a direct descendant of Qiao Yan in the true sense, and with limited connections to the scholars in Yingchuan, Xu Shu was still very reliable in Qiao Yan's eyes, so there was nothing wrong with giving him the power to recruit soldiers. However, this request happened to appear when she was inspecting the open-pit coal mine.
It also allowed her to make the decision with a stroke of the pen.
Why recruit soldiers? Qiao Yan didn't want to let these Xianbei people, who had nowhere to work in the extremely cold weather, just eat for free, so he decided to make some of them useful.
Let them go to Wuyuan!
For these strong Xianbei laborers, there was obviously not much difference between eating in Yanmen or in Wuyuan.
The reason they came to Bingzhou was because Qiao Yan went to the Xianbei royal court in March this year and revealed this news when he talked about life with Bu Dugen -
The coal she traded to Budugen could only be called defective products in Bingzhou, even though Bingzhou was short of manpower.
Due to the need for fuel for the winter, Bu Dugen did not realize the trap hidden in Qiao Yan's move. Instead, he sent the first batch of Xianbei laborers to Bingzhou to see if a long-term deal could be reached.
Fearing that Qiao Yan would inevitably treat the Xianbei people harshly, Budugen did not dare to send out the most elite personnel of his tribe, in order to prevent the manpower from being destroyed again by the Bingzhou governor.
But it was precisely because of this little thought of his that the Xianbei people, after working in Yanmen for two months, became disgusted with the unstable life of moving around on the grassland.
Now they have received Qiao Yan's care and advice that "it's too cold to mine outdoors" and that they should be temporarily relocated to Wuyuan, which has further strengthened their thinking.
They did not think that Qiao Yan transferred them away from Yanmen because he was wary of the possibility of them colluding with Budugen outside the Great Wall. They only felt that although Qiao Bingzhou was a little scary when he fought with them in a "courtesy" manner, and his tone was a little cruel when he claimed that he would use the Xianbei tribe that had a grudge against Budugen to train troops in the future, he was indeed an honest man who was capable of shouldering the important responsibility of a state.
The only drawback was that they often saw that after the military rations sent from Suiyuan City arrived at the camp on this side, more than half of them had to be sent to General Du Liao's camp on the other side.
If we divide it by the number of people, this is indeed the way to divide it, but if these Xianbei people can think about the problem according to this logic -
They are no longer Xianbei people.
Therefore, Han Fu often saw a group of Xianbei people, as ferocious as wolves and tigers, staring at him fiercely when he went out.
"What does Qiao Yeshu mean?" Han Fu began to mutter as soon as he returned to the camp.
If only one or two Xianbei people were dissatisfied with him as a Han Chinese, it would be understandable, but what if it was every one of them?
Han Fu is a person who easily overthinks.
Otherwise, he would not have ended up committing suicide in the toilet because he suspected that Yuan Shao wanted to kill him.
So now he couldn't help but create a sense of crisis for himself.
Qu Yi felt that there was no need to think so much, and advised Han Fu in this way. Then he was met with an almost accusatory look from Han Fu.
If Han Fu had a violent temper, he should have gone to Xu Shu's house and asked him to control the Xianbei people under his command, instead of just asking Qu Yi, "Have you ever heard of such a ridiculous thing? Asking the Xianbei to guard against the Xiongnu?"
Those active outside the Great Wall in the direction of Guyang Road were not only the Xiutugu Hu who had been wiped out by Qiao Yan at the oath-taking ceremony, but also other Hun tribes left behind after the Northern Huns migrated westward.
Although it is not very likely to achieve the result of a large-scale attack on Bingzhou under the current situation where Qiao Yan is commanding Bingzhou by force, there is no guarantee that no one would want to take the risk like Xiu Tugehu did in the past.
So resisting the Huns - that makes sense.
But what if we use the Xianbei to resist the Huns?
It's really weird, how could someone say such a thing.
Who knows if she intends to use those Huns to kill him, and shed a few tears for "poor supervision" to the outside world.
Qu Yi was not as pessimistic as Han Fu thought, and replied: "...Perhaps, Qiao Bingzhou is also trying to open up a path that no one has ever taken before?"
Han Fu didn't want to talk to him anymore.
He felt that Qu Yi might be on the same side as Qiao Yan.
Who made that guy be dispatched to the front line to join the team attacking Luoyang after he was confined to the front line by Qiao Yan with the authority of the governor?
After returning victoriously, he was quite impressed by Qiao Bingzhou's good military management. Otherwise, he would not have been able to cross the river with thousands of sheepskin bags, and he would not have been in chaos when he attacked the enemy camp in Mengjin, and he was able to quickly gather the troops after breaking through Luoyang.
Han Fu didn't want to hear this at all.
Unfortunately, the situation in General Du Liao's camp was not quite what he wanted.
When Qiao Yan transferred Liang Zhongning away earlier, Han Fu was still wondering whether that guy had some talent that he had not discovered. However, after Qiao Yan transferred several former Yellow Turban subordinates away, he realized that Qiao Yan was trying to poach his people.
There is a shortage of people in General Du Liao's camp, and Han Fu has to find a way to fill the gap.
But if you ask the people of Wuyuan County whether to choose to join Qiao Bingzhou's army or join Han Duliao's team, it seems that there is no need for any hesitation and they can give an answer.
What made Han Fu even more depressed was that the improved farming methods promoted by Qiao Yan in Bingzhou were also to cover the areas around Guyang Pass and General Du Liao’s camp.
Even though some of these border soldiers were forced to serve as soldiers because of crimes, many of them were native to Bingzhou.
What they saw every day was the implementation of various systems in Bingzhou, which allowed them to know that their families would probably be able to have enough food to eat under the rule of the governor. At a time when they were far from needing to meet their spiritual needs, this was a convincing enough benevolent policy.
Han Fu listened to all the soldiers praising Qiao Bingzhou in their idle chatter, and they almost forgot about himself, the General Du Liao. He was also constantly compared with the previous General Du Liao, which already made him feel very stressed.
Now, those Xianbei people are "watching covetously" nearby. Although I haven't spread this information everywhere, I just feel that I can't sleep well at night.
But what can he do?
You have to know that Qiao Yan was able to defeat Dong Zhuo and enjoyed such a terrible reputation in Bingzhou. Even if he wanted to accuse or resist the other party's behavior, it would be impossible.
If Han Fu was a little braver...
Never mind, he's not very courageous.
He also had no idea that some of the words he heard were the result of Xu Shu's manipulation, especially the behavior of having the grain first go to his camp and then be distributed to General Du Liao's camp. He had figured out the rules clearly.
The more Han Fu thought about it, the more dangerous his situation seemed to him, so he simply ran away in the middle of the night.
He thought that if he returned to Yecheng, with the support of Yuan Shao, he should be able to get an official position. It would be better than being a figurehead General Du Liao here, and he would not have to face life threats.
If he thought about it carefully, his running away could be regarded as putting an unacceptable blame on Qiao Yan, and it could also vent a little of his anger.
Who knew that as soon as he ran to the border of Bingzhou and Jizhou, he was caught by Qiao Yan who had already set a trap for him.
The charge of deserting one's post was immediately thrown at him.
As to whether it should still be considered as treason, the people in Bingzhou have their own judgment.
Anyway, no matter what the crime is, he can naturally resign from his military power as General Du Liao.
Almost at the same time when this happened, Gai Xun, along with Jiang Jiong and the men loaned to him by the governor of Hanyang County, arrived at the border between Liangzhou and Bingzhou.
In fact, if Gai Xun hadn't been on guard against possible enemy forces on the road and prepared to keep a low profile, he could actually have brought more people with him.
Even Dian Wu, the leader of the "Jujiu Qiang" tribe whom they met before entering Beidi County, wanted to at least send Gai Xun to the border because he had been treated well by Gai Xun.
After all, in the other party's view, Gai Xun went to Bingzhou to avoid disaster, which did not conflict with their interests.
However, after considering his own purpose and the confidence shown by Qiao Yan in this invitation, Gaixun rejected Dianwu's kindness.
He took only these men with him and acted cautiously along the way. He first went to where Huangfu Song's troops were stationed, responded to and explained things to this old friend, and then continued his journey east.
When he arrived at the border, snow had already fallen on the Loess Plateau.
Jiang Jiong put a thicker wind cloak on him. Seeing that the governor of Wudu was looking at the snow-covered Ziwu Mountain ahead, he could not help but ask, "Why are you hesitating?"
Gai Xun did not look away from the front and replied: "I am not hesitating whether choosing Qiao Bingzhou as an ally is the right choice. If that were the case, I would not have to travel all the way here."
"I was looking there."
He pointed to the land under the Ziwuling Mountains in the distance.
They happened to be coming from the south of Qingyang, and in front of them, amid the criss-crossing waterways, there were neatly arranged ridges of fields and trenches, and winter wheat had already been planted in them.
In Beidi County, where the order had already been disrupted by the Qiang tribes such as Qiedong Qiang and Nanshan Qiang, the appearance of such a piece of land was extremely rare.
With Gai Xun's keen eyesight, it was not impossible that he could not see that the level of cultivation of the land was not low. At least it was not someone who had a sudden idea to create such a scene.
Just as he was thinking about this, he suddenly saw more than a hundred cavalrymen running towards him on the hill.
Although the wind and snow obstructed his vision, it did not prevent Gai Xun from recognizing at first sight that these were not the clothes of Han cavalry, but those of the Huns!
"Prepare for an enemy attack!"
As soon as he gave the order, the cavalry on the opposite side rushed forward at an extremely fast speed and had already traveled a distance in the blink of an eye.
As the distance shortened, Gai Xun suddenly realized a problem. According to the Huns' fighting habits, the enemy should have picked up bows and arrows long ago, but they had no intention of fighting.
The leader even shouted from afar, "Is the person coming here Gai Yuangu Gai, the governor?"
Gai Xun looked at the other party intently and suddenly realized that the leading young general was actually an acquaintance.
When Fu Xie was demoted in name only and sent to be the prefect of Hanyang, Fu Gan had been following Fu Xie. Although four years have passed since then, Fu Gan has not changed drastically to the point that Gai Xun cannot recognize him.
He quickly raised his hand to let the people behind him put down their bows and arrows first, and replied loudly: "It is Gai Xun!"
Following his response, the charging cavalry immediately slowed down.
He even saw Fu Ganling's followers stopping a short distance away from here, and he rode towards this direction alone, clearly wanting him to see his attitude.
The stern-faced young general's rapid march and giving orders made Gai Xun feel as if he had some of the old Fu Xie's appearance.
In the past, Fu Nanrong was famous throughout the north, with his reputation reaching as far as Hanyang, and now his son is no less famous!
He is worthy of his father's reputation!
However, Gai Xun couldn't help but complain in his heart, why would he associate with the Huns? This does seem a bit strange.
After Fu Gan dismounted, walked up to Gai Xun and saluted, Gai Xun also asked this question.
Since he was the guide invited by Qiao Yan from Liangzhou and not an outsider, Fu Gan naturally had no need to hide anything from him.
He replied: "Shangjun is no longer as barren as it was in the early years. There is no guarantee that the Qiang people will not cross the Ziwuling Mountains. Therefore, Marquis Qiao ordered the Southern Xiongnu to stay here. On the one hand, he wanted all parties in Liangzhou to slack off, thinking that Marquis Qiao must first deal with the situation in Pingzhou before he can leave Liangzhou to the west. On the other hand -"
"Use the Xiongnu as a shield to resist the Qiang tribe."
Gai Xun almost thought there was something wrong with his ears.
But Fu Gan didn't seem to think that he had said anything strange.
He pointed to the east and said, "Please, Governor Gai, come with me across Ziwu Ridge. My lord has been waiting for you for a long time."
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