(Since 8.23, the broken book of the bottle has been temporarily suspended by the editor for some reasons, and the bottle has been ordered to rectify as soon as possible, so it has been stopped for more than a week.) Now that it's been modified, it's been released from the prison and can be reinstated. Please forgive me this week! ）

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In the spring and February of the 28th year of Jian'an, Ma Chao led more than 10,000 cavalry to Yangon through the Sichuan-Burma passage. And here in Yangon, there are already things prepared by Lu Ren for Ma Chao, so after Ma Chao has completed the corresponding rest and supplies, and completed the refitting of his more than 10,000 cavalry, he will start to march to the northwest of Yangon according to the route given by Lu Ren before.

To be honest, Ma Chao is just a chess piece that Lu Ren flickered over, and in Lu Ren's heart, Ma Chao's nature is actually a pawn crossing the river...... Well, to put it mildly, it's just cannon fodder with some usefulness. But the question is, where will Guishuang understand those plans in Lu Ren's heart? In the eyes of Guishan, Lu Ren sent an elite cavalry corps to launch a large-scale, retaliatory attack on Guishan.

At first, most of the Kushan people did think so, believing that Lu Ren had launched this retaliatory military campaign because Rangoon had been attacked by a few Kushan nobles. And within Guishan, there were originally some people who didn't want to be enemies of Lu Ren out of self-interest considerations, as well as some people who had a wait-and-see attitude. Now seeing that Lu Ren is so tough, they also sent a large cavalry corps to attack Guishan, these people still want to be able to get in touch with Lu Ren, use diplomatic peace talks to avoid the war, and at the same time hope to resume trade with Lu Ren as soon as possible...... In a word, the battle really started, and these Kushan nobles knew how fiercely they had lost their money.

But soon, they realized that things were not as simple as they had imagined. To be precise, it was Ma Chao who captured a few nobles from the Guishan side according to Lu Ren's request, and Lu Ren asked these captured nobles to bring back the diplomatic edict of Emperor Liu Xie to the royal court of Guishan. And this edict of Emperor Liu Xie is actually an edict of declaration of war in the name of the Han Dynasty to officially declare war on Guishan.

In fact, before this, this edict from Emperor Liu Xie had already been sent to Lu Ren's hands. Here is the first thing to say, that is, only with the words of Emperor Liu Xie himself, this edict to send to Guishan is basically equivalent to nonsense, and the situation at that time can only be sent to Guishan through the hands of Lu Ren...... But this matter was originally Lu Ren's intention. Then again, can you still count on Cao, Liu, and Sun's three families to fight Guishuang?

Therefore, this matter is handled by Lu Ren "with full authority". When the edict was delivered to Lu Ren, Lu Ren did not disclose the edict for the time being due to various factors at that time, and it was not until now that the preparations were largely completed and the corresponding conditions were ripe, and Lu Ren made the edict public.

The content of the edict is simply like these few sentences, first of all, your Guishan secretly instructed the countries of the Western Regions to invade the territory of our Han Dynasty has been exposed, and the Han side has even caught your noble members of Guishan, so don't think about denying this matter;

Secondly, it is you Kushan who attacked Yangon for no reason. Yangon is Lu Ren's territory, and Lu Ren is the courtier of the Han Dynasty, so Lu Ren went to the court and asked Emperor Liu Xie to authorize Lu Ren to discuss Guishan, and Emperor Liu Xie has also approved it. Therefore, now I will formally submit a declaration of war to you, Kushan.

…… In fact, the latter one was added by Lu Ren not long ago. In fact, when Emperor Liu Xie sent an edict to Lu Ren, the war in Yangon had not yet taken place. After the outbreak of the Yangon War, in order to further emphasize the rationality of the expedition and the support of public opinion, Lu Ren and Xun Yu once again submitted the table to Emperor Liu Xie, and Emperor Liu Xie's request to Lu Ren was naturally not without a response, so the edict became what it is now.

Don't think that Lu Ren is doing superfluous things. In fact, the Chinese civilization has always paid great attention to "the division is famous" and "the name is right", if these things are not handled well, Lu Ren's next series of military operations will not be done well, and some people with ulterior motives will be criticized as "raising unrighteous soldiers" and "reckless military force", and it is likely to affect the attitude of the people under Lu Ren's command towards this war. Lu Ren knew very well that this was going to be a war that would take a lot of time, so he had to take these aspects into account.

In addition to the edict itself, Lu Ren also had a copy of the edict. It is worth mentioning that Lu Ren emphasized his identity as "Han, general of Zhengnan, Mangjia Hou, Lingyi Prefecture pastor, and Liaozhou pastor". Don't think that Lu Ren is doing this too much, in fact, after leaving Malacca, Central Asia and Rome have always thought that Lu Ren has little to do with the Han Dynasty, at most it is just a vassal state of the Han Dynasty. And Lu Ren emphasized this point in the text, just to tell these people that I Lu Ren is a person who directly belongs to the Han Dynasty, so there are some things that you don't want to meow and think about what to do with your brains. As for what a crooked brain is...... That's a lot.

On the other hand, don't forget that Lu Ren's expeditionary corps is a "multinational force", and Cao, Liu, and Sun all have soldiers and horses to fight here in Lu Ren, and how can the main generals of these three families not have their own little Jiujiu in their hearts? Lu Ren doesn't care about this kind of thing, in fact, he can't manage it if he wants to, but Lu Ren can make some articles in other aspects, that is, let the soldiers of Cao Liu and Sun know one thing, although your so-called lord is Cao Liu Sun, but you are both children of Huaxia, and you are all the same people of the Han Dynasty.

In modern terms, this thing is to unify the front and form a force of faith and centripetal force, so the banners of Cao, Liu and Sun are all stopped, and Lao Tzu is replaced with the banner of the Han Dynasty; No matter what unit you are, you will always call yourself the "Han Army" to the outside world.

Okay, let's not say much about this, just say that Ma Chao has some ideas of his own, so it is extremely ruthless and even ferocious to attack after the attack. You must know that the cavalry of the Qianghu series led by Ma Chao was already fierce on the battlefield, and after receiving the comprehensive change of clothes provided by Lu Ren, its ferocity index has increased a lot, so it only took a few small battles to attract high attention from Guishuang. One thing can be clear here, that is, Guishan itself is also known for its cavalry, but the combat effectiveness of the cavalry led by Ma Chao is ...... Needless to say.

But at this time, there was a discordant note from Ma Chao: Ma Chao fought too ferociously, not only on the battlefield, but also too cruel to the civilian people after the war. To put it bluntly, Ma Chao connived at the wanton massacre and plundering of the common people by the troops, and even slaughtered the territory of a Kushan nobleman...... Well, Ma Chao had done this kind of thing before, and in that era, it was indeed nothing new, and there were more people who did it.

But when Lu Ren received the news, he was furious at that time.

If you just kill a lot of people on the battlefield, Lu Ren won't care about anything, because there is no way to do it, if you don't kill the enemy, the enemy will kill you.

But the slaughter of the city is a different matter. Let's put it this way, Lu Ren knew very well in his heart that he was fighting against a big empire in Central Asia at that time, and Guishan could be listed as one of the four great empires along with Han, Anxi, and Rome in later generations, and its national strength was definitely not a joke. If Lu Ren was simply engaged in military contests and hard fights with Guishan, then Lu Ren would definitely have no good fruit to eat, not to mention that Lu Ren would have to enter another big empire to rest in peace after getting Guishan.

Therefore, Lu Ren's plan is to avoid a hard fight as much as possible, and in order to avoid a hard fight, what Lu Ren wants to do or play is to make full use of the increasingly serious internal class contradictions hidden under the strong and prosperous appearance of Guishan during this period. To put it more bluntly, Lu Ren wanted to try to intensify the contradictions between the Kushan aristocracy and the middle and lower class commoners, and provoke the revolt and uprising of the middle and lower class poor people against the nobles. And Lu Ren can play a guide at this time, dismantling Guishuang step by step.

Since he wants to play the role of a guide, or to play a "savior" to put it mildly, Lu Ren has many things that must be paid special attention to, especially in the opinion of the people of Guishan on Lu Ren. And the massacre of the city will have a great negative impact on Lu Ren's reputation, and may even stimulate the people of Guishan to have a great disgust with the "brutal" Lu Ren, and then put up strong resistance to Lu Ren, which will make many of Lu Ren's follow-up plans unable to carry out, and it will eventually evolve into a situation where Lu Ren and Guishan are stumbling to the end, which is not something that Lu Ren can accept.

It's okay if I can't accept it psychologically, the key problem is that if it really becomes a dead-end situation with Guishuang, Lu Ren's national strength at hand can't withstand it! After all, as one of the descendants of the Persian lineage, Kushan is by no means a soft-footed shrimp, and has such a warlike personality in his bones, unlike some ethnic groups in the era of foreign colonization in Europe, which withered after being bombarded by the strong ships of the European colonizers.

So, after hearing the news, Lu Ren immediately sent an urgent telegram to Ma Chao, ordering Ma Chao to go back to Yangon in an extremely tough tone, and the people who had been plundered should be released as soon as possible, and the looted property must also be returned to the people. In addition, considering Gan Ning, Chen Li, and Huang Zhong, who had just led the main fleet to Yangon, might not be able to control Ma Chao...... In fact, the main reason is that Lu Ren doesn't want to cause any infighting, so he also specifically stated in the telegram that if you Ma Chao dare to mess around again, I will immediately cut off the military supply to your Ma Chao, and don't think about the military reinforcements that would have been provided to you when necessary. And if you Ma Chao really force me to do this, your Ma Chao's more than 10,000 troops who have lost military supplies and friendly reinforcements will be equivalent to a lone army trapped in the territory of Kushan, what kind of fate will it end up in, please think about it yourself!

Ma Chao was also shocked when he received this urgent telegram from Lu Ren. He is also a person who has dealt directly with Lu Ren face-to-face, so he knows that Lu Ren is really angry. At this time, Ma Chao is already a person who has suffered many big losses, and the edges and corners on his body have already been smoothed out a lot, so he understands the truth that those people must not offend, like when he was still with Liu Bei before this, Liu Bei spoke, Ma Chao didn't even put one more fart?

Compared to the situation where you can't do anything in Liu Bei, as long as you are willing to listen to Lu Ren, there is still a chance to do something, right? Of course, the most important thing is that Ma Chao is afraid that Lu Ren will really cut off the military supply to Ma Chao and reinforcements if necessary, if that happens, Ma Chao will be finished.

Therefore, after receiving the telegram, Ma Chao immediately led his troops back to Yangon, and according to Lu Ren's request, he released and returned what should be returned, and at the same time began to strictly rectify military discipline. Lu Ren, on the other hand, drove his landing craft straight to Yangon after taking care of the matter at hand...... Now that the war with Guishan has officially started, and Lu Ren has a lot of tricks to play next, it is necessary to go to the front in person. Talking about Ma Chao's case again, it also made Lu Ren have to go over to deal with some related things in person.

As for Yizhou, Xun Yu is here to help keep an eye on it, and Lu Feng and Lu Yu are both eighteen years old this year, so they should almost let them take over some things for experience.

Without further ado, the first thing Lu Ren did after arriving in Yangon was to call Ma Chao to the landing craft to talk......

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"Meng Qi, Meng Qi, what do you want me to say about you? Fight a war, fight a war, what city do you have nothing to slaughter when you are full!? ”

Ma Chao was very unhappy and disdainful in his heart at this time, but out of fear of Lu Ren in some aspects, he didn't dare to show anything on his face, so he nodded to Lu Ren with a little caution to admit his mistake.

Lu Ren has been mixed up for so many years, and he still has some ability to check his face, so Ma Chao's hidden displeasure and disdain have not been able to hide from Lu Ren, and Lu Ren has not broken it, because Lu Ren knows very well what "the country is easy to change, but the nature is difficult to change". For a person like Ma Chao, if you blindly persuade or reprimand him, then in retrospect, Ma Chao will not be regarded as a good thing, and it will cause a headache if it causes a rebellious psychology and then gives you a change of capital.

So So, Lu Ren, who had been prepared for a long time, took another way:

"Meng Qi, how old are you this year?"

Ma Chao was stunned, not knowing what Lu Ren was suddenly asking for. Thinking that this is not a secret thing, he responded very simply: "Eight out of forty, and the year will be fifty." ”

Lu Renxin said that you/Ya/should have died depressed last year because of unwillingness, but now you are still alive and well, and the plan is because the Western Regions Alliance's invasion triggered Liu Bei's reaction, which made you see hope, so it ignited the fire in your heart.

But what Lu Ren wanted to say was not these, but something else: "Eight out of forty, half a hundred years old." Meng Qi, how much can a person's lifespan be? How long can you be young and strong? You're forty-eight years old, and at that age, do you think you'll be able to fight on the battlefield for a few more years? ”

"This ......" is a really difficult question to answer.

Lu Ren continued: "Then you should think about it again, didn't you have the opportunity to achieve something meritorious before?" But why did you reach such an age and still achieve nothing? ”

Ma Chao was silent when he heard this.

In fact, there are many reasons for Ma Chao's failure, but Lu Ren doesn't have the interest to analyze Ma Chao one by one, and what he wants to say is just to pick out those who fool Ma Chao in his own favor: "Meng Qi, you might as well think about why Lao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan were able to succeed now." Is it because they can fight well? If you want me to say that it is not only their ability to fight well, but more importantly, they all know how to treat the people well, and after gaining the support of the people, they also have the soldiers and money to fight in all directions. Therefore, those who can achieve things are good at supporting the people, and those who bully the people are no different from fishing with all their might. ”

Ma Chao's lips moved a few times, and he said, "Lu Zhengnan, you understand all these truths you said......

"You know!?"

Lu Ren's voice suddenly increased an octave: "Understand that you still connive at your subordinates to wantonly kill and plunder the people?" Did you give me a slaughter city? Ma Mengqi, Ma Mengqi, what did I tell you when I was in Jianning? If you don't remember, I'll remind you now! After you come to Guishan, how much territory you can lay depends on your own ability, but what is the use if you can't hold it after you defeat it? Didn't you suffer less of this kind of loss back then!? ”

Ma Chao's face darkened, because Lu Ren's words stabbed the sadness in Ma Chao's heart.

Lu Ren at this end paused and then changed his tone, and then changed his bitter face: "Meng Qi, you grew up in Liangzhou, and you should know the temperament of the people in the Western Regions very well, so you should also know that once they have a grudge against you, it will be extremely difficult for you to gain a foothold in the Western Regions."

"And if you come to Guishan, but it is difficult to gain a foothold in the land of the Western Regions, I can certainly help you solve the money, food, and military supplies you need, but how to solve the matter of your follow-up soldiers? Do you dare to say that the more than 10,000 men and horses you brought with Kushan have not been damaged after repeated battles? And our future battle will definitely get bigger and bigger, and when the time comes, you dare to say that your more than 10,000 men will be enough? If you can't solve the problem of soldiers on the spot, can you still gather people from Liangzhou, thousands of miles away, to help you? ”

“……”

Lu Ren's words really made Ma Chao speechless. After looking at Lu Ren in a daze for a while, Ma Chao finally put away his previous displeasure and disdain, and respectfully bowed to Lu Ren and said, "Lu Zhengnan, I really know what is wrong!" And how to do it after that, please teach me Lu Zhengnan! ”