A Qiang king and officer
The Qiang are one of the 56 ethnic groups recognized by the government of China, having a population of 200,000 in 1990. The Qiang inhabit western China's Sichuan and Tibet regions, which used to be the frontier of the Han dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms era, the Qiang were a constant threat to the Han, with the brutal general Dong Zhuo conquering Liang Province from the troublesome Qiang in 180 CE. The Qiang sided with Shu Han during Zhuge Liang's Northern Expeditions of 226-234 and Jiang Wei's expeditions of 244-263, with their kings providing themselves and their armies to the Shu with the goal of taking back Liang and their ancestral lands from the kingdom of Cao Wei. The Qiang later settled in what was Yi Province (now Sichuan) and the unexplored Tibetan Plateau's eastern edge, and the Qiang still inhabit the region.