Chapter 146

Chapter 146

Can a strategist not ascend the throne? Volume 5: The Two Divisions of Han, Battles to Secure Hexi Chapter 146: First Secure the Inside

The so-called principle that one cannot allow others to sleep soundly by their side has always held true.

Previously, she could maintain a “peaceful coexistence” with Han Fu, mainly because Han Fu, the General of Crossing the Liao, was appointed by Liu Hong and should be considered on the same side as her.

As the governor of Bingzhou, she theoretically needed a General of Crossing the Liao to help her control the border.

But Qiao Yan is indeed an unusual governor.

Even a few years ago, when the border was still facing invasions by the Hu people, by now, her generals could fully cover the entire Bingzhou region, more than enough, making Han Fu’s position as General of Crossing the Liao almost redundant.

He might even be considered an unstable redundancy.

As Qiao Yan candidly mentioned in a later chat with Guo Yun: “During the earlier campaign against Dong Zhuo, this man feigned illness until Yuan Shao and others initiated the Suanzao Alliance, only then did he start to stir, showing he’s not truly aligned with us. If he could do such a thing yesterday, with Yuan Shao supporting the prince in Ye City today, who knows what he might do tomorrow?”

Thus, Han Fu must not remain in his position!

However, for the sake of righteousness, Qiao Yan could only accuse Han Fu of “intending to act improperly while the governor is away” when he showed signs of following Yuan Shao’s call, rather than directly using her military power to execute or exile him, which would make her a usurper under the guise of a Han official.

But this wasn’t too troublesome for Qiao Yan.

Since Xu Shu, the officer from Wuyuan, took office and formed a civil-military combination with Xu Huang at the Guyang Road defense line on the Yinshan border, he realized that legitimately seizing Han Fu’s authority might not be as troublesome as imagined.

Qiao Yan once mentioned that Han Fu was somewhat paranoid, a paranoia that was self-inflicted rather than directed at others, which wasn’t wrong.

Logically, this shouldn’t be a trait of someone with his background, but it’s possible that the support from higher-ups made him extremely insecure about his abilities.

This was the state he presented to Xu Shu.

Therefore, Xu Shu requested Qiao Yan’s permission to temporarily recruit soldiers in Wuyuan.

As a direct subordinate of Qiao Yan with limited connections to the Yingchuan scholars, Xu Shu’s reliability was high, and granting him the power to recruit soldiers wasn’t an issue. However, this request coincidentally came when she was inspecting an open-pit coal mine.

And she made a decision with a stroke of her pen.

Why recruit soldiers? These Xianbei people, who would have nowhere to work in the upcoming cold weather, shouldn’t be allowed to eat for free. Let’s make use of them again.

Send them to Wuyuan!

For these Xianbei laborers, eating in Yanmen or Wuyuan made little difference.

They came to Bingzhou because Qiao Yan, during her visit to the Xianbei royal court in March, hinted at a deal with Budugen—the coal she traded to him was considered substandard in Bingzhou, even with the labor shortage there.

The need for winter fuel made Budugen unaware of the trap in Qiao Yan’s move, and he sent the first batch of Xianbei laborers to Bingzhou to see if a long-term trade could be established.

Worried that Qiao Yan might mistreat the Xianbei, Budugen didn’t dare to send his most elite members, fearing further losses to his forces under the Bingzhou governor.

But it was precisely this caution that made these Xianbei, after two months of labor in Yanmen, disdain the unstable life of following water and grass on the grasslands.

Now, with Qiao Yan’s consideration of “it’s too cold for outdoor mining,” moving them temporarily to Wuyuan deepened this sentiment.

They didn’t see this as Qiao Yan’s precaution against a possible inside-outside coordination with Budugen outside the border, but rather as a sign of her decency, despite her fearsome reputation in battles and her harsh tone when mentioning future drills with Xianbei tribes at odds with Budugen.

The only slight downside was that they often saw military rations from Suiyuan City being delivered to their camp, only to have more than half sent to the General of Crossing the Liao’s camp.

If divided by numbers, this distribution made sense, but if the Xianbei could think logically—

They wouldn’t be Xianbei.

Thus, Han Fu often saw a group of fierce Xianbei staring at him like wolves and tigers when he went out.

“What does Qiao Yanshu mean?” Han Fu muttered upon returning to camp.

If only one or two Xianbei were dissatisfied with him, it might be understandable, but every single one?

Han Fu was a man prone to overthinking.

If not, he wouldn’t have ended up committing suicide in a toilet out of fear that Yuan Shao wanted to kill him.

So now, he couldn’t help but create a sense of crisis for himself.

Qu Yi thought there was no need to overthink and advised Han Fu accordingly, only to receive an accusatory look.

If Han Fu were the hot-tempered type, he should have gone to Xu Shu to properly discipline his Xianbei subordinates, instead of just asking Qu Yi, “Have you ever heard of such absurdity? Using Xianbei to guard against the Xiongnu?”

Active outside the Guyang Road were not just the remnants of the Xiongnu tribes left after the northern Xiongnu’s westward migration, but also other Xiongnu tribes.

Although the likelihood of a large-scale raid on Bingzhou under Qiao Yan’s military leadership was slim, there might still be those willing to take the risk, like the Xiongnu of old.

So defending against the Xiongnu—that made sense.

But using Xianbei to defend against the Xiongnu?

That was just bizarre. Who could even say such a thing?

Who knows if she plans to use the Xiongnu to eliminate him, shedding a few tears of “inadequate supervision” afterward.

Qu Yi wasn’t as pessimistic as Han Fu, replying, “…Perhaps Governor Qiao is trying to forge a path no one has taken before?”

Han Fu didn’t want to talk to him anymore.

He thought Qu Yi might be on Qiao Yan’s side.

After all, that guy was dispatched to the front lines after Han Fu was placed under house arrest by Qiao Yan, joining the attack on Luoyang.

Upon returning victorious, he praised Qiao Yan’s military discipline, saying it was the only way they could cross the river with thousands of sheepskin rafts, remain unflustered when charging at the enemy camp at Mengjin, and quickly regroup after capturing Luoyang.

Han Fu didn’t want to hear any of this.

Yet, the situation in the General of Crossing the Liao’s camp was also…








It didn’t quite go as he wished.

Earlier, when Qiao Yan transferred Liang Zhongning away, Han Fu had to ponder whether that guy had some hidden talent he hadn’t noticed. But after Qiao Yan transferred away several more former Yellow Turban followers, he realized that Qiao Yan was poaching his people.

With the Duliang General’s camp short on personnel, Han Fu had to find a way to fill the gaps.

But if you asked the people of Wuyuan whether they would choose to join Qiao Yan’s Bingzhou army or Han Fu’s Duliang forces, they wouldn’t hesitate to give an answer.

What made Han Fu even more frustrated was that Qiao Yan’s agricultural reforms in Bingzhou also extended to the areas around Guyang Fort and the Duliang General’s camp.

Even though some of these border soldiers were there due to crimes, many were locals from Bingzhou.

Every day, they saw the implementation of Bingzhou’s policies, knowing that their families could at least eat well under the governor’s rule. In a time when spiritual needs were far from being met, this was already a persuasive act of benevolent governance.

All Han Fu heard was these soldiers singing praises of Qiao Yan in their idle chatter, almost forgetting about him, the Duliang General, and constantly comparing him to previous Duliang Generals. The pressure was already immense.

Now, with the Xianbei “tigers” lurking nearby, though he didn’t spread such talk, he felt uneasy even at night.

But what could he do?

After all, Qiao Yan had even defeated Dong Zhuo and enjoyed such terrifying prestige in Bingzhou. It was impossible for him to criticize or resist her actions.

If Han Fu were braver…

Forget it, he wasn’t that brave.

He also didn’t know that some of the things he heard were entirely manipulated by Xu Shu, especially the tactic of sending grain to his camp first before distributing it to the Duliang General’s camp. He had figured out the rules.

The more Han Fu thought about it, the more he felt his situation was dangerous, so he simply ran away in the middle of the night.

He figured that if he returned to Ye City, with Yuan Shao’s support, he should be able to secure an official position, which would be better than being a puppet Duliang General here, not to mention avoiding life-threatening dangers.

Upon closer thought, his escape also framed Qiao Yan as intolerant, giving him a slight sense of satisfaction.

Who knew that as soon as he reached the border between Bingzhou and Ji Province, he was caught red-handed by Qiao Yan, who had already set a trap for him.

The charge of desertion was immediately thrown at him.

As for whether it should also count as colluding with the enemy, the people of Bingzhou had their own judgment.

In any case, whether it was one charge or the other, his authority as the Duliang General could be rightfully stripped away.

Almost simultaneously, Gai Xun, along with Jiang Jiao and the forces borrowed from the Han Yang Prefect, arrived at the border between Liangzhou and Bingzhou.

If it weren’t for Gai Xun’s need to guard against possible enemy attacks and keep a low profile, he could have brought even more people.

Even the leader of the “Ju Jiu Qiang” tribe, Dian Wu, whom they encountered before entering Beidi County, wanted to escort Gai Xun to the border, having been well-treated by him before.

After all, in their view, Gai Xun was seeking refuge in Bingzhou, which didn’t conflict with their interests.

But after considering his goals and the confidence Qiao Yan showed in her invitation, Gai Xun declined Dian Wu’s offer.

He only brought his own people, proceeding cautiously, first visiting Huangfu Song’s garrison to give his old friend an update, then continuing eastward.

When he reached the border, snow had already fallen on the Loess Plateau.

Jiang Jiao draped a heavy cloak over him, noticing the Prefect of Wudu gazing at the snow-capped Ziwu Ridge ahead with a slightly dazed expression, and couldn’t help but ask, “Why the hesitation, Prefect?”

Gai Xun, without shifting his gaze, replied, “I’m not hesitating about whether choosing Qiao Yan as an ally is the right decision. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have traveled all this way.”

“I’m looking at that.”

He pointed to the land at the foot of Ziwu Ridge.

They had come from south of Qingyang, and before them lay a network of waterways, with neatly plowed fields and winter wheat already sown.

In Beidi County, where the Qiang tribes like Qie Dong Qiang and Nan Shan Qiang had disrupted order, such a sight was incredibly rare.

With Gai Xun’s discerning eye, he could tell that the level of farming here was not low, certainly not something done on a whim.

As he pondered this, he suddenly saw over a hundred cavalrymen galloping down from the ridge.

Despite the snowstorm obstructing his view, Gai Xun immediately recognized that these were not Han Chinese cavalry but Xiongnu!

“Prepare for enemy attack!”

Just as he gave the order, the opposing cavalry closed the distance rapidly.

The proximity made Gai Xun realize something: if this were a Xiongnu attack, they should have already drawn their bows, yet they showed no intention of fighting.

The leader even shouted from afar, “Is that Prefect Gai Yuangu?”

Gai Xun squinted and suddenly realized the young leader was someone he knew.

When Fu Xie was ostensibly promoted but actually demoted to become the Prefect of Han Yang, Fu Gan had accompanied him. Though four years had passed since then, Fu Gan hadn’t changed so drastically that Gai Xun couldn’t recognize him.

He quickly raised his hand, signaling his men to lower their bows, and shouted back, “It is Gai Xun!”

At his response, the charging cavalry slowed down.

He saw Fu Gan order his followers to stop a short distance away, while he alone rode forward, clearly showing his intentions.

The stern-faced young general, in his swift commands, reminded Gai Xun of Fu Xie’s demeanor.

The once-famous Fu Nanrong, whose reputation shook Beidi and reached Han Yang, now had a son who was no less impressive!

He lived up to his father’s legacy!

However, Gai Xun couldn’t help but wonder: why was he allied with the Xiongnu? It seemed quite strange.

After Fu Gan dismounted and approached to bow to Gai Xun, Gai Xun asked this very question.

Since he was essentially a guide invited by Qiao Yan from Liangzhou, Fu Gan had no reason to hide the truth from him.

He replied, “Nowadays, Shangjun is no longer as barren as it once was. There’s no guarantee that the Qiang won’t cross Ziwu Ridge. Thus, Marquis Qiao stationed the Southern Xiongnu here, both to make the Liangzhou factions complacent, thinking that Marquis Qiao would first settle internal matters before turning west, and—”

“To use the Xiongnu as a shield against the Qiang tribes.”

Gai Xun almost thought he had misheard.

But Fu Gan didn’t seem to think he had said anything strange.

He pointed eastward and said, “Please follow me across Ziwu Ridge, Prefect Gai. My lord has been waiting for you for a long time.”