Chapter 220 Tripartite Alliance
Gongsun Zan knew that there were not so many good things that could have the best of both worlds, so he did not think of pacifying Liaodong in one battle.
There are only two outcomes he can achieve.
One is to kill Liu Yu, and then it would be okay to face Qiao Yan afterwards.
He will not repeat the mistakes of Ma Teng, Han Sui and others.
Because he himself is young enough, he will never underestimate Qiao Yan.
He would also make good use of the friction between Qiao Yan and Yuan Shao, and at the same time, rely on his greater familiarity with the terrain of Youzhou to block Qiao Yan.
Once the name of Liu Yu is gone, it will be very difficult for Qiao Yan to quickly win the hearts of the people in Youzhou.
Gongsun Zan would also be the first to give Liu Yu a negative evaluation, and then use the force he commanded to dominate the direction of Youzhou.
If Qiao Yan rashly marched alone into the heart of Liaodong, given the territory she currently occupied, Gongsun Zan would have plenty of ways to get help from others and stab Qiao Yan from behind.
This is the most favorable situation for Gongsun Zan.
Another option, which is a bit worse than the others, is to force Liu Yu into a situation where he has to fight a quick battle with him.
It was not Qiao Yan's men who helped him suppress the bandits while he was still hesitating, but Liu Yu himself who took the initiative to attack Gongsun Zan!
He was really tired of seeing the other party's hesitation. It would be better to start a full-scale war before Qiao Yan deployed more manpower to the Youzhou battlefield.
In this way, he would have the opportunity to take advantage of the chaos to undermine Liu Yu's reputation in Youzhou, or take advantage of the other party's mistakes in command due to haste to achieve his counterattack goal.
In this situation, he is not without a way out.
It might even be possible to reach a true truce.
After Gongsun Zan made up his mind, he sent two letters.
He cannot achieve either of these two goals by his own strength.
Because of the support for Liu Yu from Bingzhou, once winter approaches and the river ahead freezes, he may be attacked by Zhang Liao first.
In this case, he is bound to suffer losses.
It is very likely that something bad will happen to him before the goal is achieved.
He must find himself some helpers.
So one of the two letters was sent to Kebi Neng, the leader of the Xianbei branch.
One letter was sent to Tadun, the nephew of Qiuliju, the Chanyu of Wuhuan.
As a branch of the Xianbei, Kebi led his tribe to live north of Youzhou.
To be precise, it is the Raole River Basin north of the Yanshan Mountains.
Three and a half years ago, Qiao Yan went out of the border to attack the Xianbei royal court. Lu Bu brazenly injured the then Xianbei Chanyu Kuitou, causing him to die from his injuries.
The previous Chanyu Helian's son Qianman was forced to flee eastward and finally joined Kebi Neng's army.
Following Qiao Yan's instructions, Guo Jia intimidated and divided the Xianbei forces outside the Great Wall. He once established contact between people and Kebi Neng, and even supported Kebi Neng's power through the trade of goods in an attempt to contain Budugen.
Just as the Han Dynasty could form an emperor in the east and west, the Xianbei could also have two kings who were mutually exclusive.
However, with the further submission of the Southern Xiongnu and Qiao Yan's move to send troops to Liangzhou to intimidate the Qiang people, a situation of mutual checks and balances and competition between the Xianbei Xiongnu and the Qiang people had formed on the lands of Liangzhou and Bingzhou.
In this way, Budugen, who was relatively more obedient and cooperative, completely replaced Kebinen's role in Bingzhou.
From a geographical point of view, Budugen, who is closer to Bingzhou, is more suitable to be Qiao Yan's agent in supervising the grassland.
Kebi Neng was a smart man, and he was keenly aware of the signs that he was being abandoned by Bingzhou.
Unfortunately, with his strength, he was unable to make any protest against this abandonment.
In addition, within his tribe, as Qianman grew up, there were people who supported him in taking back the position of Xianbei Chanyu from Budugen, because his grandfather was a Xianbei hero who once intimidated Youbing on Danhan Mountain.
If Kebi Neng wants to avoid any disunity among the tribe, he must raise the banner of confrontation with Budugen as soon as possible, or even take action.
But if they really did so, they might also face attacks from Bingzhou.
It's risky, but necessary.
This was the situation Kebi Neng faced when Gongsun Zan's letter was delivered to this Xianbei branch.
This situation was also written about by Gongsun Zan in this letter.
In his letter, he wrote that although Liu Yu held a conciliatory policy towards the Hu people north of Youzhou, and even set up trade in places such as Yuyang Shanggu to achieve friendly mutual assistance between the Han and Hu people, Liu Yu now wanted to become emperor with the support of Qiao Bingzhou.
Once Liu Yu defeats Gongsun Zan, the one who stays in Youzhou will definitely not be Liu Yu, but Qiao Yan.
Is this good news for you, Ke Bineng? Maybe not.
Let’s take a look at the situation of the Qiang people in Liangzhou.
Even though she absorbed Qiang people into her army, taught them to speak Chinese, learn farming, and even guided them to engage in other manufacturing industries, this was all based on the fact that she had already caused enough killings in Gaoping City and Ayang County.
As for the Qiang people who split into different ethnic groups from Huangzhong, she killed some and kept some, but what about you Xianbei people?
Gongsun Zan did not know about the small amount of cooperation that had been reached between Bingzhou and Kebineng's tribe, but the question he asked at this time was not wrong.
He asked Kebineng, what makes you think that after you have shown such rising strength, you can serve under Qiao Yan at the same time as Budugen?
Perhaps Ke Bineng should have referred to the ending in which Zhong Qiang's entire army was annihilated, rather than Shao Dang Qiang.
When Ke Bi saw this, his expression changed.
The life-threatening danger that Gongsun Zan pointed out bluntly was also something he was concerned about.
Precisely because of this self-related interest, he did not have time to think at this moment whether Gongsun Zan's current situation was much more dangerous than his own, let alone whether Gongsun Zan had indeed carried out more punitive actions against the Hu people than Liu Yu had.
For the same purpose, former enemies can also unite.
What's more, this is to save lives.
Ke Bineng continued reading.
In the letter, Gongsun Zan also said that he planned to unite with Kebi Neng to jointly attack Liu Yu and drive him out of Youzhou. At the same time, he would try to win over Tadun of Wuhuan to join them in the attack.
Of course, whether the latter can agree to come together does not affect the final result.
In short, according to the battle strategy he mentioned, they will definitely be able to solve the dilemma of being attacked by Liu Yu and Qiao Yan together.
If successful, he would send troops to assist Kebi Neng in attacking Budugen and help him take down the position of the Xianbei Chanyu.
As for whether Qiao Yan would launch a full-scale military campaign against the Xianbei because of this incident?
If she only had one Bingzhou, perhaps this would be possible.
But when she still needed to station troops in Guanzhong and Liangzhou, it was impossible for her to lead troops to Mobei as she did in the past.
Isn't this Ke Bineng's chance?
By then, he would rebuild the royal court in the Yanran area, and he would not have to worry about Gongsun Zan's possible breach of contract and invasion.
"Rebuilding the royal court..." Ke Bi could see this and his expression was unpredictable.
Gongsun Zan used some exaggerated expressions in his beautiful vision for him.
Kebi had both ambition and ability, but he was relatively a pragmatic Xianbei leader and had not thought of something as far-fetched as rebuilding the royal court.
But Gongsun Zan really grasped his mentality in this letter.
On one hand, there was a life-threatening crisis; on the other hand, there was the prospect of living in peace with him after Gongsun Zan won.
These two points directly pushed the balance in Ke Bineng's heart towards Gongsun Zan!
This cooperation is indeed worth discussing!
Ke Bineng immediately sent a reply letter to Gongsun Zan, promising in the letter that he would launch an attack in the manner Gongsun Zan had specified.
After sending the letter, he also began to deploy personnel in the tribe.
On the other side, Tadun also received a letter from Gongsun Zan.
Compared with the Xianbei who lived outside the Great Wall, the Wuhuan people actually mostly lived in Youzhou, mainly distributed in the three counties of Youbeiping, Yuyang and Shanggu.
Only the location of the Wuhuan Chanyu was further east, that is, in Liaoxi County.
Tadun was not surprised that the letter from Gongsun Zan was given to him.
Soon after the rebellion of Zhang Ju in Yuyang was put down, Chanyu Qiuliju's health was not very good.
Liu Yu was able to persuade the Wuhuan to surrender by relying on his status as the governor of Youzhou and offering concessions in trade. This might have been due to the fact that Qiuliju was seriously ill and his ambition was gradually fading.
Because Qiuliju's son Louban was young, as was the case in the Xianbei tribe, Tadun, as Qiuliju's young and strong nephew, began to take charge of the affairs.
It seemed that once Qiuliju died, he would become the next leader of Wuhuan.
However, unlike Kebinen's situation, Tadun did not face any life-and-death dilemma.
After seeing the alliance invitation that Gongsun Zan stated bluntly at the beginning of the letter, he even showed a bit of disdain.
There was no need for him to intervene in this matter.
If Liu Yu won, given Liu Yu's attitude towards Wuhuan, he could completely continue the friendship between his uncle Qiuliju and Liu Yu and continue to maintain a harmonious relationship.
If Liu Yu really wanted to go to Chang'an to become the emperor, he could also cut off Lulong Pass, the main road between the west and east of Youzhou, and make the land east of Youzhou a world where the Wuhuan people could operate.
If Gongsun Zan won, it would be a pyrrhic victory at best.
The Wuhuan could either say that not stabbing Gongsun Zan in the back was already a way for them to express their support for him, or they could simply sit back and reap the benefits.
This kind of inaction can also preserve the strength of the Wuhuan to the maximum extent.
But when Tadun continued to look down, his expression became solemn again.
Gongsun Zan said, I have been fighting with you Wuhuan people until now, and I know very well what you are pursuing.
The Wuhuan people were good at fighting, but the territory they occupied was less than one-third of the Xianbei and Xiongnu. Was this really just because of the geography?
Gongsun Zan thought not.
The real reason is that the Wuhuan people do not have the orthodox title of ruling the northern desert like the Xianbei people or the Xiongnu people.
What does this mean?
Take the Xianbei as an example. After the previous Chanyu of the Xianbei, Tan Shihuai, had repeatedly succeeded in invading the Han Dynasty, in the ninth year of Yan Xi during the reign of Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty, he was even visited by an envoy of the Han court with a seal and ribbon, intending to make him a king and marry him.
This seal was ultimately not awarded.
At that time, Tan Shihuai was in power and blatantly rejected the Han court's attempt to win him over.
But precisely because of this seal, even after Tan Shihuai's death, when the Xianbei tribe quickly declined and split, when the names of Xianbei and Wuhuan were mentioned, the former was still the undisputed leader in the north.
In this case, Wuhuan also needed to make a name for themselves and then receive such an imperial decree.
If we have to fight, we should fight the coalition forces of Liu Yu and Bingzhou!
Another team from Bingzhou successfully attacked Chang'an two months ago, defeated Dong Zhuo in one fell swoop, and recaptured the Guanzhong area, representing the highest level of combat effectiveness of the Han Dynasty.
If Wuhuan can achieve good results in this battle, they can ask the court in Yecheng to make them kings.
It is true that Qiuliju was old and frail, and Tadun could temporarily become the Chanyu because Qiuliju's son was too young.
But his situation was not very good.
You know, there is a rule within the Wuhuan that three kings assist in governing the country. They can wait until Lou Ban comes of age and then overthrow Tadun, allowing Lou Ban to successfully become the Chanyu.
But if Tadun had a reputation like Tan Shihuai and could bring more benefits to Wuhuan, would he still be overthrown like this?
Don't say that you can gain benefits by living in peace with Liu Yu. In the Han people's perception, Qiuliju surrendered to Liu Yu!
Tadun stared at the words on the sheepskin in front of him.
Even though he, like Ke Bineng, another person who received the letter, knew clearly that Gongsun Zan's attempt to get them to cooperate at this time was definitely more about saving himself, it was difficult for him not to be moved by Gongsun Zan's words.
Gongsun Zan, who grew up in western Liaoning and had almost never left Youzhou, knew as much about the Wuhuan and Xianbei people as he did about their own tribesmen. Naturally, he was able to grasp this pain point and hit it with one strike.
After being persuaded to fight, Tadun really couldn't be a bystander anymore!
If he doesn't want to be deposed from the position of Chanyu one day in the future, he really has to follow Gongsun Zan's plan!
This bastard Gongsun Zan even said something at the end of the letter, congratulating him in advance on his abdication and becoming one of the three kings.
What Chanyu? Doesn't exist!
Tadun slammed the table and stood up, and immediately sent someone to send a reply to Gongsun Zan.
They collaborate!
The two reply letters from Kebineng and Tadun made Gongsun Zan's previous depression disappear.
With these two allies, he could make up for the support given to Liu Yu by Zhang Liao and Qu Yan under Qiao Yan.
What's more, they have the advantage of playing at home.
But at the beginning of November, the news received in Yuyang County where Liu Yu was located was that Gongsun Zan's rear army was retreating from Pinggu towards Wuzhong.
Liu Yu looked towards the east.
In his sight, the Baoqiu River was covered with a layer of frosty mist in the approaching winter.
Perhaps it was because there were signs of ice forming along the narrow river banks upstream that the speed of the river had slowed down a lot.
In fact, one cannot see the movements of Gongsun Zan's troops from the top of the city wall here, but if the other side really retreats, it can be explained.
Liu Yu and Zhang Liao said, "The coastal road after Wuzhong is often flooded, making it difficult for vehicles and boats to travel. Since Emperor Guangwu founded the dynasty, the road has not been repaired, and it has been more than 200 years. This is why I could only set up the trade fair in Yuyang and other places."
"Gongsun Zan was defeated earlier. If we can cross the river with our army in winter, his current advantage will no longer exist. It is better for him to retreat to the east of Wuzhong. In this way, we will not be able to do anything to him in a short period of time. We can only try to get the Wuhuan people to hand him over."
When Liu Yu said this, Zhang Liao was also looking in the direction of Gongsun Zan.
For some reason, he had a strange intuition that Gongsun Zan's retreat was not a retreat, but rather a signal to attack.
It was also on the night three days later that a cavalry group from the north of Yanshan Mountain broke into Yuyang through the pass formed by the Baoqiu River flowing through the mountains.
At the same time, the Wuhuan leader Tadun came from Youbeiping and joined forces with Gongsun Zan, heading straight for Yuyang County!
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