Wu Hu - Wu Hu During The Three Kingdoms

Wu Hu During The Three Kingdoms

As the Eastern Han Dynasty slowly disintegrated into an era of warlords, battles for predominance eventually ushered in the Three Kingdoms. However years of war had generated a severe shortage of labor, a solution to which was the encouragement of immigration of Wu Hu herdsmen. Thus the Wei court, controlling Northern China at the time, reluctantly yielded areas already occupied to the Wu Hu and sometimes colonized areas depopulated by war with some weaker tribes of herdsmen. Several large-scale forced relocations of Di to southwestern Shaanxi and northern Sichuan took place in the 220s.

Surprising to some historians, the immigration went smoothly since no powerful confederacy of any tribes was established. The Wuhuan, partisans of Yuan Shao and his sons, had already been squashed when Cao Cao sent an expedition into You Province. Its herdsmen were dispersed all over Northern China and were no longer a major threat.

The later years saw only border skirmishes as the three governments concentrated on reclaiming the loss of productivity. Thus after the unification under the Western Jin Dynasty an era of prosperity began as the relocated tribes adopted agriculture and contributed to the revival of the economy. Other tribes, still residing in the areas that they had occupied since the Eastern Han Dynasty, frequently served as mercenaries against minor rebellious chieftains such as Kebineng and Tufa Shujineng (禿髮樹機能).

However the Jin bureaucracy forgot an underlying threat: Living in areas well south of the Great Wall and closer than ever before to the capital of China at Luoyang, any widespread uprising by the Wu Hu would be impossible to halt.