It has to be said that at this moment, the problem of merging states is quite serious.

Dong Zhuo, a person with such a strong desire for power, does not want to be the pastor of the state, and is willing to be the assassin of Xuzhou, it is not without reason.

Bingzhou has always been the border area of the Han Empire, with a vast and sparsely populated area, and one word, poor.

In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu was in turmoil for the throne, and was divided into two parts of the north and the south again, the Southern Xiongnu were attached to the Eastern Han Dynasty as a vassal, and were placed in the Hetao area by Emperor Guangwu, and the Southern Xiongnu royal court was located in Meiji of Xihe County, and the Xiongnu Zhonglang General led the troops to protect its safety.

At the same time, the attached Wuhuan was placed in Youzhou, and the two states, and the Wuhuan school captain was placed, regardless of Youzhou, and the three counties of Yanmen, Taiyuan, and Shuofang in the state belonged to the Wuhuan people's activity area.

Liu Xiu's hope was that these attached nomads would be able to defend the frontier for the Han Dynasty, thereby reducing the financial burden of the Han Empire, and at first, this was indeed effective.

However, with the passage of time, as well as the undesirable policies of the Eastern Han government itself, the Southern Xiongnu and Wuhuan became more and more dissatisfied with the frequent conscription and oppression of the imperial court.

When this discontent accumulated to a peak, they began to rebel, together with the Xianbei and Qiang people who had never surrendered abroad, to make trouble and fight together, and constantly encroach on the land of the state.

Since the outbreak of the Han-Qiang War, the Eastern Han government has spent almost all its money and energy on Liangzhou, and there is not much energy to take care of Youzhou and Merge Prefecture.

Especially in the northern part of Bingzhou, which was so poor, it was basically worthless in the eyes of the imperial court, and it was just a loss of money and goods - the imperial court at that time even wanted to give up the entire Liangzhou, not to mention that there were already a large number of Hu people active in the annexation.

So by the time Liu Hong became emperor, the situation in Bingzhou had deteriorated further, and the five counties of Dingxiang, Yunzhong, Wuyuan, Shuofang, and Shangjun had essentially escaped the control of the Eastern Han government, and only retained their rule in name. qδ

Before the Hedong Crisis, even part of Xihe County had been eroded and was essentially no longer part of the Han Empire.

Therefore, it is said that it is the history of the state and the state pastor, and in fact, only Taiyuan County, Shangdang County, Xihe County, and Yanmen County can be controlled.

According to the original historical trend, because there were too few parts to control, Cao Cao revoked the establishment of the state and merged it into Jizhou, and later Cao Pi restored the state system.

However, the land north of the Chengling Mountains was basically abandoned.

And in this changed world, because there is no business, the situation in the state is not getting better.

With the rise of the mountain bandits led by Zhang Yan and their alliance with the Southern Xiongnu, the anti-imperial forces in Bingzhou became stronger.

After the outbreak of the Hedong crisis, the Han army could not defeat the rebel alliance, Yanmen County was not to think about it, even the northern part of Taiyuan County was occupied by the Southern Xiongnu, Dong Zhuo's range of activities was really small and a little pitiful, only a little more than two counties.

In fact, if you really want to fight, Dong Zhuo can at least take all of Taiyuan County and Xihe County, Liu Bei still has a minimum recognition of Dong Zhuo's combat effectiveness, but the previous situation is really not suitable for another dispute in the state, so the imperial court's policy in the state has always been defensive and safe.

But you are safe, it doesn't mean that others want to be safe, and the Hu people living in the state are trying their best to further erode the territory of the state, and Dong Zhuo is helpless about it.

So it's no wonder that people don't want to be the pastor of this Raushzi.

It's just that now it's different.

With the gradual stabilization of the situation in the imperial court and the world, the system of four auxiliary ministers led by Liu Bei has gradually stabilized, and the first wave of reform has been carried out violently.

Even from a practical point of view, the restoration of the entire territory of the annex is necessary for the protection of the Mikawa area.

Otherwise, in the current situation, the defense north of Luoyang almost entirely depends on Hedong County, and as long as the enemy penetrates Hedong County, which lacks a defensive fulcrum, he will be able to attack the Yellow River and threaten Luoyang, which is very unfavorable to Luoyang's military security.

To put it mildly, the Eastern Han Empire during Liu Hong's period was like

It was the Northern Song Empire, which lost the sixteen states of Yanyun, that was in a disadvantageous position in terms of military posture and geopolitics, but the grassland power at this stage was far from being comparable to the Liao and Jin during the Song Empire.

Therefore, the restoration of the annexation is necessary from any point of view.

Liu Bei put forward this plan, and with the large amount of money and goods obtained by the current imperial court to destroy the family and the family, he could naturally launch a simple and complete war to recover the state.

However, this war cannot be waged in one go, but gradually.

This time, Liu Bei faced many enemies, including the mountain bandits led by Zhang Yan and the Bingzhou, the Southern Xiongnu tribe led by Yu Fuluo, the Xianbei part of the central region, and a group of Wuhuan people living in the state.

The total population of the enemy was quite large, according to estimates, no less than one million, and its combatable soldiers were no less than 100,000, and it was very difficult to destroy them and restore the imperial court's rule over the annexed states.

And to deal with these enemies, there must always be a sequence, and you can't treat them all as enemies in one go, so you need Liu Bei to go into battle again and bring all the central Han troops in Luoyang to Bingzhou to fight.

That's too much of an impact.

And nominally speaking, the mountain bandits in Bingzhou are now ruled by Zhang Yan, the general of the imperial court, and they are considered to be a member of the imperial court, and the Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu Fuluo is also canonized by the imperial court, and nominally subordinate to the imperial court.

Therefore, it is not appropriate for the imperial court to rashly raise troops to crusade against them, without a suitable name of righteousness.

Even if the Son of Heaven sends troops, he needs a righteous name, doesn't he?

So Liu Bei set a priority.

In this crusade, we must first target Shangjun, Shuofang County, Wuyuan County, Dingxiang County and Yunzhong County, and clean up the Xianbei and Wuhuan people here.

As for the Southern Xiongnu, who were mainly active in the northern part of Xihe County and Taiyuan County, and the mountain bandit forces in Yanmen County and some areas of Youzhou, they should be dealt with later.

They have the righteousness of the imperial court, and as long as they do not commit rebellion, the imperial court cannot crusade against them, so as not to damage the credibility of the imperial court.

Moreover, they don't necessarily have to crusade, and they can also use them in various ways to make them the "help" of this state merger operation.

Since he enjoys the protection brought by the righteous declaration of the imperial court, how can he not contribute to the imperial court?

When the court needs to crusade against thieves, you should naturally contribute, otherwise, you are disrespectful, ungrateful, and treacherous.

Then I'll have a reason to hit you. Liu Bei's plan was comprehensive.

He wanted to mobilize the forces of the Southern Xiongnu and the mountain bandits in Bingzhou, while attacking the Xianbei forces and the Wuhuan forces, driving the tigers and devouring wolves, so that they could conquer each other, and the court could reap the benefits of the fishermen later.

Of course, these guys are not stupid, whether it is Zhang Yan or Yu Fuluo, they are all people with brains, they have experienced the struggle of the Hedong crisis, and the level of struggle should not be bad, it is impossible not to see Liu Bei's strategy of driving the tiger and devouring the wolf.

But this is a righteous and bright plan for them.

Listen to the order, then you must take practical actions and pay the casualties and costs to respond to the call of the imperial court, so that the imperial court has no possibility of using force against them.

If you don't listen to orders, you can preserve your own strength, but correspondingly, the court can also think that they are ungrateful, so they have an excuse to raise troops to fight, and they will have no worries about going to war.

Liu Bei's reputation and combat effectiveness, these guys should all know clearly, whether they follow Liu Bei's orders and do things for the court, or do not obey Liu Bei's orders and resist to the end, they will make their own choices.

And Liu Bei just needs to wait.

After Guan Yu and the army of Zhao arrived in Luoyang, they rested in Luoyang for half a month, Liu Bei changed them with the latest equipment, gave them good food and drink for half a month, and let Guan Yu and Zhao go north with Manchu in early December.

After marching north, the army arrived at Taiyuan County on the eighth day of December.

In Dayuan County, Man Chong and Dong Zhuo made a handover.

Subsequently, Dong Zhuo took the five thousand relatives who belonged directly to him

The soldiers left Taiyuan County and, according to the route planned by the imperial court, crossed Jizhou, crossed the Yellow River, and entered Xuzhou by passing through part of Yanzhou and Qingzhou.

Dong Zhuo will launch his own "Luoyang Return Battle" in Xuzhou.

The remaining Bingzhou army was about 20,000 people, Dong Zhuo honestly handed over these troops to Guan Yu and Zhaozhao, did not make any small moves, and left Taiyuan County in a hurry on the tenth day of December and rushed towards his own future.

And Man Chong rectified the resources left by Dong Zhuo, cooperated with Guan Yu and Zhaozhao, rectified the army left by Dong Zhuo, and also dealt with some affairs of the current state.

said that it was a merger, in fact, what could be done by Manzhong was the affairs of Taiyuan County, Shangdang County and Xihe County, Dong Zhuo was a little capable, and he also took care of these three counties, and there was no problem in general.

The main prefectures are vast and sparsely populated, and these three counties are not densely populated areas, and they are quite scarce in terms of agricultural production and commercial trade, so there is little money in the state treasury.

After checking the accounts, Man Chong also confirmed that there was no problem with these accounts, Dong Zhuo was not corrupt, and his subordinates had some autumn wind behavior, but on the whole, it did not affect the finances of the state.

If the annexation of the state is still considered to have "finances". The state is really poor, not greedy.

Therefore, at present, if you want to fight, the military expenses and resources that the state treasury can provide can only account for 20%, or even less than 20%, and the imperial court needs to provide more than 80%.

This data was submitted to Liu Bei in mid-to-late December, so that Liu Bei had a basic plan for the upcoming battle to merge states.