At the end of the Han Dynasty: a stingy husband from his hometown

Chapter 75 Qiang Disease
Duan Jiong's death made Zhou Qi feel a little uneasy.

After explaining what he was doing, he returned to his place of residence and took out the book that Duan Jiong had given him from his pocket.

The book cover has no text.

When Zhou Qi was in prison, he didn't have time to read it in detail. He thought that according to Tu Duanju's character, this book would only record how to fight the Qiang people and how to deal with the Qiang people's military tactics.

Unexpectedly, the words recorded on the first page of the book gave Zhou Qi a look of disbelief on his face.

If you want to calm the Qiang's troubles, you should set up a vassal state, select honest and virtuous people, open up business routes, and promote education.

It is just over 20 words, but it is very different from Duan Juan's attitude towards the Qiang people in his life. If this book had not been given to him personally by Duan Juan, Zhou Qi would never have believed that these words would have come from Duan Yan's hand.

Zhou Qi suppressed the shock in his heart and continued to look down.

This book changes from Duan Jiong's usual decisiveness in killing and attacking, but instead it is like a gentle gentleman narrating. Perhaps it is because Duan Jiong fought for more than ten years and was finally trapped in prison that he has such a state of mind.

Since the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Qiang suffered from repeated bans. The century-long Qiang rebellion dragged the dynasty into the vortex of war, and also planted the seeds of disaster for the collapse of this great dynasty.

Since the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty alone, four large-scale Qiang rebellions have broken out. The last Qiang rebellion was only temporarily subsided after more than ten years of work by Duan Jiong and others.

If you count the rebellion that will break out again in the future, there have been five large-scale rebellions by the Qiang people in the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

As for small-scale rebellions, they are countless and have been repeatedly banned.

In this book, Duan Jiong did not accuse the Qiang people of being unfaithful and rebellious, but analyzed the reasons for Qiang's suffering from another angle.

According to Duan Jiong, the imperial court's squeeze on the living space of the Qiang people was the source of the chaos.

Originally, the history of exchanges between the Han people and the Qiang people has a long history, and even the ancestors of the two are the same. The Qiang people also admire the culture of the Han people very much, and many Qiang people are even willing to actively integrate into the Han nationality.

The policy of the Western Han Dynasty towards the Qiang people and the Western Regions was mainly based on gentleness and appeasement, allowing their own civilization to subtly influence the various ethnic groups in the Western Regions and reduce ethnic conflicts. Finally, it was logical to establish counties in the places where the Qiang people lived and incorporated their jurisdiction into the territory of the Han Dynasty.

The turning point of things began with Wang Mang.

Wang Mang is a man with strong nationalism and a will to expand territory, so instead of the previous appeasement policy of the Western Han Dynasty, he established Xihai County in Qinghai and ordered large-scale land reclamation in Xihai.

All tribes of the Qiang people are mainly nomadic. Qinghai and its surrounding areas have fertile land, abundant water sources, and abundant vegetation, making them excellent natural pastures.

Wang Mang's large-scale reclamation of fields undoubtedly violated the interests of the Qiang people. They could only retreat to a dangerous place and revolt one after another. Finally, they expelled the county magistrate of Xihai and regained this fertile pasture.

After the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, following Wang Mang's ethnic policy, he continued to wantonly reclaim land in the Hehuang River Valley area under the jurisdiction of Qinghai, which was even worse than Wang Mang's period.

In order to completely occupy this fertile land, the Eastern Han Dynasty court began to forcibly relocate the Qiang people who surrendered there, and moved them to counties near the Great Wall, which formed the so-called Eastern Qiang tribe.

The idea of ​​the Eastern Han Dynasty court was very good. Moving the Qiang people inward could not only reduce the pressure on Qinghai, but also educate the relocated Eastern Qiang people and make them become minions of the court, helping the court deal with the Western Qiang people, so as to achieve the strategic goal of using barbarians to control barbarians.

They did not expect that this policy not only failed to achieve the established strategy, but intensified the contradiction between the two parties.

First of all, those Xiqiang who stayed near Qinghai and did not migrate, because the pastures were occupied by the Han people and changed to farming, so in order to survive, they continued to rebel and wanted to regain the pastures.

As for the Eastern Qiang who were relocated along the Great Wall, they lived with the local Han people, but because of their differences in ethnicity, culture, and living habits, they constantly clashed with the local Han people.

Han people are born with a sense of superiority. The powerful Han people living in the local area naturally look down on these Qiang people who have migrated from other places, so bullying of the Qiang people is not uncommon.

Coupled with the rampant corruption of officials, Qiang people are the primary targets of oppression by officials. The heavy corvee and taxes have made life difficult for many Eastern Qiang tribes.

It was under such a living environment that the Eastern Qiang people also rebelled endlessly.

Of course, it is not only the Han people who have problems, but also the Qiang people themselves. Their living habits are different from those of the Han people. Some tribal leaders are not willing to be governed by the Han people, so they frequently cause troubles.

According to Duan Jiong's thinking, since the Han and Hu conflicts are difficult to reconcile, they should not be forced to relocate to the Eastern Qiang and let the Han and Hu live together, which will not benefit both sides.

Following the example of the Western Han Dynasty, establishing a vassal state in a relatively barren place that is not suitable for farming, moving those Qiang people who surrendered to the vassal state, and then appointing the leader of the Qiang people to manage their own tribes, this will ensure that these Qiang people will not occupy a lot of fertile land. The arable land can avoid the ethnic conflicts between the two sides caused by the mixed living of Han and Hu.

When Zhou Qi saw this, his heart moved slightly.

Duan Jiong's approach is similar to that of the ethnic autonomous regions of later generations.

In fact, this method of national autonomy is not unique to later generations, it appeared in China a long time ago.

Many people may not know that in addition to counties and countries, the administrative districts of the Han Dynasty also have a very special existence, that is, tributary countries.

A vassal state, which is equivalent to an autonomous region in later generations, is dedicated to resettling those ethnic minorities such as the Huns, Qiang, and Yi who surrendered.

Large prefectures were established in relatively remote places to establish vassal states. For example, the governorate of the northern part of Guanghan was placed as a vassal state of Guanghan, the governorate of the western part of Shu County was placed as a vassal state of Shu County, the governorate of the southern part of Qianwei was placed as a vassal state of Qianwei, and the eastern part of Liaoning was placed as a vassal state of Qianwei. The Duwei ruled the Liaodong vassal states, which were at the same level as the counties.

Small counties are placed within the county, and do not have a different name. For example, the Kucha vassal state only exists as a county in the upper county, and it is directly called the Kucha vassal state, which is at the same level as the county.

The vassal country has officials such as captains, prime ministers, marquises, and qianren, who have nine translation orders. There are also officials such as the vassal state's chief historian, the vassal state's Qiequ, and the vassal state's household.Each official is filled by Han people or leaders of Hu and Qiang.The rank of the captain of the subordinate country is equivalent to two thousand stones, which is the same level as the governor of the Western Regions. He is directly under the central government and has the power to govern the people and lead the army as a prefect of the county.

The subordinate officials control the subordinate soldiers, which are called subordinate national cavalry or subordinate Hu cavalry.

In the vassal state, they can keep their own customs. In addition, most of the people in the territory are Hu people of their own tribe, and there are many Hu people leaders among the officials, which can also guarantee the interests of Hu people.

In this way, there will be much less rebellion.

However, the court of the Eastern Han Dynasty was obviously not interested in establishing a vassal state and allowing the Hu people to self-govern, but wanted to occupy their land, and then quickly assimilate these Hu people by living together with Han and Hu.

Facts have proved that the more radical ethnic policy of the Eastern Han Dynasty obviously did not achieve the expected purpose. Instead, it caused frequent border wars and endless rebellions.

Duan Jiong has fought for more than ten years, and he knows the Qiang people like the back of his hand, so he can see it so thoroughly.

However, Duan Jiong also wrote in the book that the Hu people are afraid of coercion and have no morals. If they simply use a soft policy, they may breed tigers and cause trouble. Necessary deterrence is indispensable.

Seeing this, Zhou Qi felt mixed feelings and remained silent for a long time.

Ethnic issues are indeed very sensitive and difficult to deal with, especially in ancient times when transportation was not developed and productivity was low, it was absolutely extremely difficult to carry out ethnic integration.

Duan Jiong's worry was not wrong. Forced suppression could not solve the Qiang's problems at all, and the mixed living of Han and Hu could not integrate the Qiang people, but would gradually intensify ethnic conflicts.

In order to truly integrate, apart from brutal massacres and forcible integration similar to those during the Five Husbands of China, the only way to subtly change and integrate the Hu people is on the basis of relative equality, through strong national power and civilization.

But how difficult it is to do this.

Nowadays, the Han people are superior to the Hu people. From the officials of the imperial court to the common people, they all have a natural sense of superiority when facing the Hu people.

Trying to get them to treat the Hu people equally is tantamount to wishful thinking.

As a matter of fact, although most of Xiliang’s indigenous aristocratic families make friends with the Qiang people to expand their influence, they may not really put the Hu people in their eyes. Those Han people who really make friends with the Qiang people can easily gain the friendship of the Qiang people. .

Just like Dong Zhuo.

Because Dong Zhuo killed his family's cattle to entertain the Qiang leaders, these leaders were moved to pieces.

These Qiang leaders who live as nomads, will there be a lack of beef in the tribe?

Obviously not, what they lack is not beef, but the respect of the Han people for themselves.Dong Zhuo was able to kill the cattle used to cultivate the land at home and entertain them, the Qiang people, which also represented Dong Zhuo's importance to the Qiang people.

For this reason, after these Qiang leaders returned to their tribes, they collected more than a thousand heads of various livestock and presented them to Dong Zhuo.

The friendship between the two parties was thus forged.

Zhou Qi continued to read the books left by Duan Qi, but he learned a shocking truth.

That is, in addition to the reasons described above, there is another very important reason for the repeated suppression of the Qiang plague, which is that the wealthy families in Liangzhou do not want the Qiang plague to subside.

Seeing this, many people may have doubts. Aren’t they the first to suffer from the Qiang rebellion? Why don’t they want the Qiang’s suffering to subside?
In fact, after a hundred years of Qiang suffering in Liangzhou, it has become the best way for local big clans and officials to gain military merit and expand their own power.

As long as the Qiang people rebel, they can use it to gain a lot of military merit.

The imperial court's expeditions would also bring countless wealth to the powerful people in Liangzhou. These powerful people secretly colluded with the Qiang people and even tipped them off, so they did not worry about being plundered by the Qiang people.

Raising the bandits to be self-respecting is a trick that these Liangzhou wealthy families have been playing for a hundred years.

Is it not because of this reason that Dong Zhuo, Ma Teng, Han Sui and others became successful later?
(End of this chapter)