In the four counties of Longxi, Liangzhou, the figures in the Qiang camp swayed.

In recent years, Ma Chao has matured a lot, and a lot of beards have grown on his chin, and he is no longer the impulsive hairy boy he used to be.

Ma Chao, who has a beard, looks more stable and charming, and if he is placed in later generations, he is definitely a male god who has swept thousands of rotten women.

At this time, he sat in the main hall, quietly listening to the report of his advisers.

"Lord, the scouts have heard the news, Jingzhou Liu Biao attacked Wuguan, Jizhou Yuan Shao attacked and merged the state, and Xuzhou Cao Cao is also leading the army to attack Guanzhong."

"At this time, Guanzhong is surrounded by enemies, and it is in danger, why don't you agree to the request of the envoy of Yizhou, lead the troops to capture Liangzhou, and be a real king of Xiliang."

The person who spoke was a strategist that Ma Chao had found, and his face was full of fanaticism at this time.

Since the death of Song Jian, the king of the Qiang, Ma Chao has tried his best to stabilize the panicked Qiang people and not let them return to their previous scattered appearance.

However, due to the emergence of the 'Qiang Killing Order' and the fact that the Qiang people were defeated by Chen Xu several times, even though Ma Chao integrated all the Qiang tribes, there were still too few soldiers under his command who could fight.

If Chen Xu sends a large army to the west again, I am afraid that the Qiang people will really be wiped out by the country.

Ma Chao, who took over the Qiang people, felt this strong sense of threat, so he tried every means to expand his power.

Expanding power requires an army, and because the population of Liangzhou is too sparse, Ma Chao can only set his sights on the Kushan Empire west of Yumen Pass.

The Kushan is the leading overlord in Central Asia, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers capable of fighting, and although most of the Kushan people look little different from the Han Chinese, there are many exceptions.

The composition of the Kushan race is very complex, there are some blonde and blue-eyed people, but these people are somewhat discriminated against in Kushan, and many of them have been reduced to slavery.

Even if many people did not become slaves, life was very difficult. And most of these blonde and blue-eyed people live in the northern part of Kushan.

Since Ban Chao surrendered to Guishan, Guishan has always surrendered to the Eastern Han Dynasty, guarding his own national territory and not daring to have two hearts.

Because the two countries were too far apart and the transportation was not convenient, Guishan did not know much about the civil strife in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Ma Chao had been to Kushan, and was very jealous of the blond slaves, believing that they were natural warriors, and not long after taking over the Qiang tribe, he began to come into contact with the Kushan king.

He was the newly appointed king of Xiliang in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and demanded that he buy blonde and blue-eyed slaves from Guishan.

Because of the fear of the Han Dynasty, and the fact that the blond-haired and blue-eyed people were not valued in Kushan, the King of Kushan happily agreed to Ma Chao's request and sold these slaves very cheaply.

Ma Chao obtained more than 10,000 strong slaves, organized them all into foot soldiers, and then merged with the Qiang cavalry to form a new Xiliang Iron Cavalry.

I'm afraid Chen Xu didn't expect that history would be so similar.

It has been recorded in the history books that when Ma Chao and Cao Cao fought in Guanzhong, there were many blonde people with blue eyes and high noses.

Even though Chen Xu's arrival has changed a lot of things, Ma Chao still recruited many Westerners as soldiers as in history.

The appearance of these people made the Xiliang Iron Rider, who had disappeared, reborn again.

It's just that compared with the Xiliang Iron Cavalry during Dong Zhuo's period, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry has changed a lot now, and it is no longer a simple cavalry.

Ma Chaoxin's Xiliang Corps is a Qiang cavalry, plus foot soldiers holding javelins, spears, round shields, and lined up in a fish-scale formation, forming a legion that integrates Eastern and Western characteristics.

The use of javelins by foot soldiers is also out of helplessness, first of all, most of these blonde and blue-eyed people are not good at using bows and crossbows, and then Ma Chao is entrenched in Liangzhou and cannot produce bows and crossbows.

On the other hand, these men are very tall and powerful, and they throw their javelins with great lethality.

Moreover, using the javelin as a weapon, in addition to being very demanding on the user's physical strength, is very easy to learn and very simple to make.

Therefore, Ma Chao combined the tactics of ancient Rome to form a new Xiliang iron cavalry.

Ma Chao heard the words of his advisors, but he took out a letter, and then handed it to his advisors.

"This, is this a letter written by the old general?"

Ma Chao nodded slightly, his brows furrowed tightly.

The content of the letter is Ma Teng's persuasion of Ma Chao to surrender.

Of course, what is said in it does not necessarily represent Ma Teng's true will, and it may also be that the people of Pusaka forced Ma Teng to write.

"Is the lord really going to surrender?"

Ma Chao put his right hand on the hilt of the sword, stroked it carefully for a while, and then said: "Kill Liu Zhang's envoy, cut off the head and send it to Chen Jing, the assassin of Liangzhou." ”

Liangzhou, Longxian, Thorn History.

Chen Jing looked at the human head sent by Ma Chao's envoy, and a look of ecstasy appeared on her face.

He stood up abruptly and said, "General Ma Chao is really willing to help me kill the Qiang people and exterminate their race like Yan Ming did?" ”

Ma Chao's envoy knelt on the ground and said: "My father-in-law's father is an official in the court, and my father-in-law is also a famous general of the Han Dynasty, so he actually doesn't have much affection for the Qiang people. ”

"As long as the Qiang people are destroyed, my lord's father and son can be reunited, and they can get the rewards they deserve, how can the lives of tens of thousands of Qiang people be concerned!"

Chen Jing stroked his palms and laughed: "If you can annihilate all the last men of the Qiang people, this is a great merit, and General Ma Chao will be able to worship the marquis!" ”

The envoy was overjoyed when he heard this, and bowed again and said: "The general should rest assured, this time he will completely destroy the Qiang people and establish immortal meritorious deeds." ”

After sending away Ma Chao's envoy, Chen Jing said to Zhong Xuan: "Now the lord is leading the army to the south, so that Guanzhong is empty, and the princes take advantage of the weakness to enter. ”

"Liangzhou has garrisoned tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in order to guard against the Qiang people, if the Qiang people can be completely destroyed this time, I can mobilize a large army to go back to rescue Guanzhong."

Before Zhong Xuan could speak, Yan Xing hurriedly said: "Ma Chao, this person's wolf ambition, is definitely not a subordinate of Qu Ju, how can he cooperate with the king to destroy the Qiang people in order to conquer the general of the west and the position of the Marquis of Qiang?" ”

"I'm afraid that this matter is fraudulent, please make your way cautious."

Since helping Chen Jing kill the King of Qiang and burn tens of thousands of Qiang people, Yan Xing stayed in Longxian County and was reused by Chen Jing.

Chen Jing also knew that Yan Xing and Ma Chao had always been at odds, and when she heard these words, she didn't care, but said: "Longxi is a remote and desolate place, and Ma Chao can't be willing to stay there all the time. ”

"I wrote a letter and sent it to Pusaka, asking Zhongde to urge Ma Teng to write a letter to Ma Chao, so that he could accept and cooperate with me to kill the Qiang people. Ma Chao, as a son of man, how could he not listen to his father? ”

"What's more, in order to show his intentions, Ma Chao also killed Liu Zhang's envoy, how can he have two hearts!"

Yan Xing was in a hurry, and he wanted to persuade him again, but was interrupted by Chen Jing: "I have long known about the contradiction between Yanming and Ma Chao, but this matter involves the great cause of the lord, and Yanming should be cautious in his words." ”

Yan Xing was stunned when he heard this, but he didn't dare to persuade him again.

Seeing this, Zhong Xuan's brows furrowed slightly, and he said: "The previous Qiang people's plan led to the death of tens of thousands of troops, and Song Jian, the king of Qiang, was killed, how could he be easily fooled this time?" ”

"Even if Ma Chao is the current nominal commander of the Qiang people, the Qiang people will also be wary of Ma Chao."

"And Yan Ming's words are not unreasonable, Ma Chao is ambitious, with a letter and a few officials, he wants to recruit him, I'm afraid it's not easy."

Chen Jing said: "Having said that, Guanzhong is in danger at this time, if the threat of the Qiang people cannot be solved as soon as possible, the Liangzhou army will definitely have no way to return to Guanzhong." ”

"If Guanzhong is lost, the lord will be homeless."

After Chen Jing heard the movement in Guanzhong, she was very anxious, and wanted to lead the army to the rescue.

But because he was afraid that Ma Chao would take advantage of the situation to attack, he wanted to recruit Ma Chao to kill the Qiang people first, and then lead the troops back to help.

Chen Jing's sincere heart for Wen Zhao is also a lesson from heaven and earth.

Zhong Xuan shook his head and said: "The lord is wise and martial, and the strategists under his command are all talented people, since they dare to go on an expedition, they will definitely expect the princes to attack Guanzhong." ”

"The general only needs to hold Liangzhou, there is no need to worry about the affairs of Guanzhong."

Chen Jing said: "Soldiers are impermanent, water is impermanent, although the lord has made preparations in advance, but the army in Guanzhong is too small. If I can, I'll need to bring back reinforcements. ”

"I already have a plan in my heart, and the military advisor will not say anything else."

Zhong Miao saw that he persuaded Chen Jing not to move, but he stopped talking; If Chen Jing can really recruit Ma Chao and trap all the remaining Qiang men, it will be a great thing.

Of course, this good thing is based on the suffering of the Qiang people.

The weather in the four counties of Longxi has gradually become colder, the wind is howling, and the yellow sand is all over the sky.

When Ma Chao announced that he was going to go east to Liangzhou, almost all the Qiang leaders spoke out against it, they had already been killed by the Guanzhong army, and they simply did not have the courage to fight again.

Ma Chao insisted again and again, and even some Qiang leaders would rather leave this gathering place than fight the Han people again.

Ma Chao later went berserk and killed dozens of people in a row, so that the rest of the Qiang leaders did not dare to say anything else, and then he used his army to kill Benliangzhou.

During the march, Ma Chao's advisors came to him and said hesitantly: "Does the lord really want to surrender to Chen Wenzhao?" ”

"It must be known that even if you become an official after surrendering, you will only be subservient; If the lord stays in Longxi, even if he can't go east to seize the entire territory of Liangzhou in the future, he can become a prince on one side. ”

"What's more, now that the princes are attacking Chen, the situation in Guanzhong is changing rapidly, whether it is the loss of the annexation of the state, or the capture of Guanzhong by Liu Biao and Cao Cao, Chen Wenzhao will greatly reduce his strength, and may even be lost."

"Conspired with Chen Jing to kill the Qiang people and surrender to Guanzhong, please be cautious!"

Ma Chao looked at the east from afar and said: "The eldest husband was born in heaven and earth, and he should establish an immortal fame, and he lives in the barren land of Longxi, but what is it?" ”

"I have already planned this matter in my heart, and you have to say anything else!"