In August of the twelfth year of Hongwu, there was a rebellion in Xiqiang, in order to completely pacify the northwest, stabilize Zhuqiang and Tuyuhun, the Great Jin Emperor Sima ordered the northwest Jiedu to make Zhang Fang march west with 60,000 cavalry troops, ready to take the entire Xiping Plateau in one fell swoop.

In the past two years, Murong Tuyuhun has gradually grown in wings, and his ambitions have gradually expanded, in order to realize his dream of founding a country, the ambitious Tuyuhun secretly instigated the rebellion of the unattached Qiang people in the northwest.

According to the original intention, Tuyuhun did this just to delay the pace of the Great Jin Dynasty's troops, and after using the time difference to create the established facts, he would 'humble' claim to the Great Jin. In fact, Tuyuhun's center of gravity has always been to the west, and his Tuyuhun cavalry has conquered hundreds of thousands of Qiang tribes on the plateau.

It's just that what Tuyuhun didn't expect was that this time Dajin's response was tough and the speed of sending troops was all beyond his expectations. After the Great Jin sent troops, Tuyuhun quickly joined the rebel side, and the rebels were powerful for a while, and the three Qiang tribes that had been attached to the Great Jin were captured by the rebels, and their leaders were killed!

In the middle of August, the Northwest Jiedu envoy made part of the Xiang army and the Qiang cavalry loyal to the Great Jin Dynasty and the Qiang rebels who were supported by part of Tuyuhun fought fiercely on the prairie in the northwest of Xiping County.

This defeat actually boosted the strength of the rebels, and although there were still some Qiang people in the northwest who were loyal to the Great Jin, the number of people participating in the rebellion was increasing. Soon, Murong Tuguhun officially announced his defection from the Great Jin.

After receiving the report, Zhang Fang, the envoy of the Northwest Jiedu, immediately ordered the army to set off. At this time, the Northwest Jiedu Embassy concentrated 50,000 troops. and requisitioned 20,000 Qiang people to go to the plateau to quell the rebellion.

At the same time, in order to contain Tuyuhun, the Privy Council sent a letter to the Western Regions Protectorate hoping that they could send 10,000 troops and threaten Tuyuhun from the flank by using Dao Shanshan. However, the whole of the Great Jin did not have much hope for this strange army, but only hoped that Shanshanguo could feel the determination of the Great Jin and dispel the other party's idea of supporting Tuyuhun.

By the end of August, the battle report finally came from the northwestern plateau.

In fact, Tuyuhun and the rebellious Qiang people were all terrified when they learned that Zhang Fang personally led the army to come, and many of the Qiang people who participated in the rebellion planned to retreat to the south of Jishi Mountain. However, after Zhang Fang, who led the army, arrived in Jincheng County. There was no rush to the army. On the contrary, he paused on the grounds that the weather was not suitable for marching.

Seeing this situation, Murong Tuguhun couldn't help but take advantage of Zhang Fang's suspension of troops to invade the Great Jin Border County in order to reap some benefits, so he was repeatedly requested. The rebellious Qiang people continued the offensive together with Tuyuhun. And a group of new troops were recruited from the Qiang tribes in the northwest. Attempt a quick fix.

Although the Great Jin militia and government soldiers who were in charge of guarding the place could not defeat a large number of Qiang and Tuyuhun coalition armies in the field, the Jin army, which had experienced many major battles, had long understood that different combat strategies should be adopted when confronting different enemies. As a result, the border army of the Great Jin Dynasty was in the case of insufficient troops, and the walls were cleared. All the Han people, as well as most of the Qiang tribes and food supplies loyal to the Great Jin, were concentrated in a few tall cities.

The border army is to defend the original government soldiers in the city, plus its own army of less than 10,000 troops, and the people who have been organized to assist in defending the city, to hold these cities. In the cavalry field battle, the Qiang and Tuyuhun coalition armies, which had a numerical advantage, were stronger, but when it came to the offensive and defensive battles of the city, the Tuyuhun people could not take any advantage.

During this period, although Zhang Fang received many letters asking for help from the western border, he always said that the soldiers in the interior were intolerant of the plateau environment, and could not enter the army until the army adapted, but let the border army hold on. In addition to scolding his mother, the border army was also helpless, because the Privy Council had already ordered it to return to the northwest Jiedu embassy to control it.

After learning that the Jin army would not send reinforcements, the Qiang and Tuyuhun coalition forces attacked the city more and more. Fortunately, the Great Jin cement was widely used, and the Jin army's powerful weapons to defend the city made it impossible for the rebels to succeed for a while.

In this way, by the middle of September, Murong Tuyuhun still had not taken a city, and he couldn't help but be anxious, so he concentrated most of his troops - the Qiang and Tuyuhun coalition armies had more than 100,000 horses and horses, and attacked the cities of Xiping County.

At this moment, the rebellious Qiang people suddenly got the news that their nest was being attacked.

It turned out that Zhang Fang's army was repairing in Jincheng on the surface, but in fact, he had already secretly sent his subordinates to lead the army, and went straight to the Qiang people's nest through Longxi. And he himself still led thousands of soldiers, plus militia troops drawn from nearby, pretending that the main force of the army was still in Jincheng.

In late August, the Jin army suddenly launched an attack on the Qiang tribe at the bottom of the Hehuang Valley from Longxi County. The Qiang people who participated in the rebellion did not expect that a large army of the imperial court would appear behind them, and the main force was all in Xiping County, where was the opponent of the Great Jin Tiger and Wolf Army? The Qiang people who stayed behind had no choice but to resist with all their might, and at the same time sent people to Xiping for help.

A few days later, the Qiang rebels who learned the news, where are they willing to stay, they will return to the army to rescue immediately, although Murong Tuguhun is unwilling, he has to withdraw first.

At this time, the Xiang army and government soldiers in Liangzhou had already obtained Zhang Fang's general order, and secretly led a total of 50,000 soldiers from other counties except Xiping and the remaining Xiang army, and ambushed them in Jishi Mountain (now Anima Qing Mountain). When the Qiang and Tuyuhun coalition forces entered the ambush circle, the army suddenly came out.

Although the Great Jin Dynasty had mobilized troops to the Northwest Plateau for adaptive training several years ago, there were still some sergeants who could not adapt to the plateau environment.

Because the Jin army had already taken advantage of the danger, coupled with the ease of waiting for work, only 100,000 coalition soldiers who were killed at this time turned on their backs, and the first to collapse was the Qiang people with poor combat effectiveness, and the Qiang people saw that the situation was not good, and they dismounted and surrendered, only that Murong Tuguhun led thousands of remnants and fled westward in a hurry.

After the war, the Qiang people in the northwest who had long been frightened had joined the Great Jin, and some of the Qiang people who had already attached to the Tuyuhun tribe also began to break away from each other and announced that they would rejoin the Great Jin. In this way, it not only weakened Tuyuhun's strength, but also greatly enhanced the prestige of the Great Jin Dynasty in the northwest!

At the beginning of September, Zhang Fang continued to play a steady and steady style, on the one hand, he personally led 27,000 cavalry to pursue Murong Tuguhun, and on the other hand, he notified the Liangzhou Assassin Mansion to increase the efforts to pacify the Northwest Zhuqiang, and strive to stabilize the Zhuqiang as soon as possible.

Zhang Fang first led his troops to the territory occupied by the Qiang people in Hehuang - the upper reaches of Taoshui and the south bank of the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and accepted the reorganization of the Qiang tribes here. Zhang Fang unceremoniously "co-opted" more than 50,000 people from more than 100 tribes and nearly 5,000 households in this area according to the grassland equalization system, and redivided the region.

After the reorganization and "suppression" of some clowns who jumped off the beam, Zhang Fang escorted the first batch of more than 100 Qiang leaders and their families out of Hetao and into Liangzhou through Wudu. They will bring the wealth and "preferential treatment certificates" given by the imperial court, and be placed in the inland county towns of the Great Jin Dynasty to live a happy life as a rich man.

In early September, Zhang Fang's eyes finally moved to the West Sea.

Xihai is a good place, originally according to Tuyuhun's "development plan", this should be the center of Tuyuhun in the future, but it is too late to carry out large-scale development.

Knowing that the Jin army came to encircle and suppress Tuyuhun, the Tuyuhun tribe had already made a fuss, right? They are not strong enough; But huddle here, right? Sooner or later, the Jin army will come over, and what will happen then?

Moreover, as the situation in the northwest became clearer and clearer, not only did the Qiang people in the West Sea region begin to alienate the Tuyuhun people, but even the Qiang people who had joined them earlier in their ranks also began to leave in twos and threes, and in the end, the Tuyuhun could only gather less than 30,000 people, which was quite a bit of a tree falling and scattering.

Then the Tuyuhun people heard that the Jin army had killed the leaders of the Qiang nobles who participated in the rebellion, and this news made the Tuyuhun people even more frightened. In the end, Tuyuhun had no choice but to lead the last Tuyuhun cavalry to a decisive battle with the Jin army in the West Sea, but the Tuyuhun people who fought to the death did not win the decisive battle.

In this decisive battle, Tuyuhun father and son died in battle, and a large number of Tuyuhun soldiers either died in battle or chose to surrender. With the last of the Tuyuhun cavalry wiped out, the Tuyuhun tribes scattered in the grasslands around the West Sea began to surrender to the Jin army in batches.

The Jin army that entered the Xihai region was not polite to these Tuyuhun people, and according to the old rules, the Jin army first slaughtered the nobles among them, and then mixed them with the Qiang people according to households. Nearly 10,000 Tuyuhun families were divided into two parts, one part retreated with the Great Jin Dynasty to settle in the interior of Liangzhou, and the other part remained in the Xihai region.

In the busyness, Zhang Fang was also busy taking his subordinates to the Xihai for a long time for sightseeing.

The West Sea under the blue sky and white clouds is beautiful. The blue sky is full of white clouds, and the blue water is rippling below the white clouds. When the blue water is calm, it is like a mirror that clearly reflects the white clouds, the green mountains, and the people and horses on the shore. A gust of wind blew, and there was a gentle wave, so that the reflection in the mirror painting suddenly came to life, and suddenly fluttered in the wind, as if time had passed.

"It's really beautiful like a fairyland, no wonder Your Majesty has always been obsessed with this place." Zhang Fang sighed.

"This festival has made a great contribution to the adults, here is fertile for thousands of miles plus the land of Huangshui in Xiping County, Liangzhou, thousands of miles of water and grass are fertile, and they will be our horse pastures in the future." The military interface next to it added.

"Well, that's a good point, join the army and report to Your Majesty and the imperial court!"

At the end of September, with the destruction of Tuyuhun, the Qiang in the northwest asked for "annexation", and the northwest was decided. (To be continued......)