"Father, you're taking it for granted, aren't you? If I surrender all my soldiers and horses, will I not be reduced to a lamb to be slaughtered? As long as I still have a heavy army in my hands for a day, Zhang Yan will definitely not dare to move a finger of me, otherwise, I will definitely turn him upside down! Ma Chao said sharply.

Ma Teng shook his head helplessly, his son's thoughts were completely different from his own, he only hoped that things would be calm, but his son would not give up, if this continued, sooner or later he would be implicated by his son.

In fact, it is not that Ma Teng is cowardly, but that Ma Teng attaches too much importance to his family, and he can only get the security he wants through guò like this, and only when he is safe can his family save their lives. For example, today's major events depend on Zhang Yan, and the people who are enemies of Zhang Yan have been eliminated one by one, and no one in the world can resist the pace of Zhang Yan's unification.

"Is this what you really think?" Ma Teng looked at Ma Chao directly, and his eyes showed great concern.

Ma Chao said: "Father, the child understands what you mean, but please forgive the child's sins, the child can't be as free and easy as his father." I have a heavy army, as long as I raise my arms and shout, the Qianghu in Liangzhou will respond, if Zhang Yan dares to attack me, the child is bound to use the entire Liangzhou to compete with the world, even if it fails, it is still glorious despite defeat! ”

Seeing Ma Chao's firm attitude, Ma Teng said: "Since this is the case, then the father won't say much." You can do it yourself. From today. I disown you from father and son. Your younger brothers, Ma Xiu and Ma Tie, are not allowed to associate with you again, lest you insist on going your own way, and in the end you will affect them! ”

After saying this, Ma Teng turned around and left, regardless of whether Ma Chao agreed or not, he left without looking back until he disappeared into the darkness.

Ma Chao did not chase it, but stood in place. He stood there quietly, watching his father's back disappear from his sight.

As a general of Zhenxi, with more than 100,000 heavy troops in his hands, and was named a first-class earl, these are all Ma Chao's sword and gun, and if he wants him to give up these hard-won things, he will not be willing to say anything.

In Ma Chao's view, it is a kind of coward's appearance, he would rather die on the battlefield than collude to live in secret.

Although Ma Chao had some unpleasantness with his father. But he didn't take it to heart, after all, his father was old. Courage has also declined, his age is the time when his blood is strong, and this time he followed Zhang Yan's southern expedition back, and saw that others were rewarded, he was red-eyed, just taking advantage of this opportunity to pacify Hanzhong in one fell swoop, and then use Hanzhong as a springboard to directly attack Yizhou with the victorious army, and eliminate Zhang Fei when his foothold was not stable.

The next day, Ma Teng went to the show for no reason, and publicly announced that he had severed relations with Ma Chao, and in the future, Ma Chao's affairs had nothing to do with him.

Many people are puzzled, but there are also many smart people who can see some clues from it, but they don't say anything.

Next, Zhang Yan took Ma Chao, the general of Zhenxi, as the vanguard general of the Western Expeditionary Army, led the troops and horses of his headquarters to pacify the southwest, and the left general Xu Huang was the deputy vanguard, responsible for assisting Ma Chao, and Yongzhou Thorn Shi Zhong Xuan was the chief dispatcher of grain and grass, and Pang Tong served as the military advisor of the Western Expeditionary Army as a supervisor, and went with Ma Chao.

Orders were given in secret, not publicly, and were kept secret to anyone who received them. After the order was issued, Ma Chao, Pang Tong and others quickly left Pengcheng, Ma Chao returned to Liangzhou to transfer troops, and Pang Tong took the holy decree to Chang'an to read the holy decree.

After that, Zhang Yan summoned Yan Pu again and informed Yan Pu that the imperial court could not carry out the Western Expedition because it could not raise the food and salary of the Western Expedition, so it could not attack Xichuan, and asked Zhang Lu to do it himself, and then raise the Western Expedition after the autumn harvest next year.

After Yan Pu listened, he was suddenly anxious, and he volunteered to come to ask for help, if the rescuer couldn't move back, he didn't need to ask for his head. So, Yan Pu opened his mouth and said to Zhang Yan: "Regent, in terms of grain, grass and military salaries, is it true that the imperial court can't get anything at all?" There should be an army of 100,000 people, right? ”

Zhang Yan shook his head helplessly, sighed heavily, and said, "You also heard it yesterday, what did Lord Chen of the Ministry of Household Shangshu say?" Now that the treasury is empty, it has long been beyond its means, and even the cost of the southern expedition is still a tax collected three years in advance, not to mention the food and salary of 100,000 people, and even the food and salary of 10,000 people cannot be made up. ”

After hearing this, Yan Pu frowned, and thought to himself: "It's really sad to think that I am a big man, and I can't even make up the food and salary of 10,000 people." It is no wonder that the Central Plains has frequent wars, constant disputes, and the war has spread very widely, and it is simply impossible to obtain a bumper harvest of grain in this year. Alas, the imperial treasury is empty, and the Western Expedition is powerless, what should I do? ”

After a while, Yan Pu suddenly knelt in front of Zhang Yan and shouted loudly: "Regent, the lower official has a reluctant request, I don't know if I should talk about it or not." ”

"Say it!"

Yan Pu said: "Qiyu Regent, Zhang Fei has just occupied Xichuan, and his foothold is still unstable, if you don't take advantage of this time to eliminate him, I'm afraid it will be even more difficult in the future." As long as the regent sends a large army into Hanzhong, every need of the imperial army will be taken care of by my lord, I wonder if the regent can send a team of at least 100,000 elite soldiers to Xichuan to quell Zhang Fei's rebellion? ”

Zhang Yan said with a smile: "I have long heard that Zhang Lu has been in Hanzhong for many years and has accumulated a lot of wealth, which can be described as a rich country, and this king still doesn't believe it." But today, when I heard you speak of it, the king felt that this rumor was still credible. If Zhang Lu can really solve these worries, then Wang Zidang will not miss this good opportunity to eliminate Zhang Fei's traitor. ”

Yan Pu asked excitedly, "So, His Royal Highness the Prince Regent agreed?" ”

Zhang Yan nodded and said: "This king sent troops, Zhang Lu paid food and salary, and jointly crusaded against Zhang Fei, this is the most appropriate, this king naturally agreed." ”

"That'...... How many troops is the regent going to send to Xichuan to quell the traitor Zhang Fei? You must know that Shu Road is difficult, if there are too many people, it will increase a lot of trouble, and if there are too few people, I am afraid it will not have any deterrent effect......" Yan Pu cautiously knocked on the side, for fear that Zhang Yan would send too many troops to conquer Zhang Fei, after all, his mention was just his own wishful thinking, and he had not yet obtained Zhang Lu's consent, it was his unauthorized behavior, in case there were too many people going, the required military salary would be a very large amount, and Zhang Lu was not easy to explain.

Zhang Yan is not a fool, he can naturally hear the meaning of Yan Pu's words, thought about it, and then said: "You can rest assured, the people sent by this king are all elite soldiers, and there will definitely be no one who will fill the number indiscriminately, the first batch of 100,000 people in the Western Expeditionary Army will go first, and the right should be the vanguard general of this king, if these 100,000 people can quell the rebellion of Zhang Fei in Xichuan, then this king will not send more troops, if these 100,000 people cannot pacify Zhang Fei and clear the southwest, this king will personally lead the second batch of troops to go, two groups of troops before and after, Definitely not more than 200,000 people. ”

After Yan Pu listened, he breathed a sigh of relief, he was very satisfied with Zhang Yan's arrangement, the first batch of 100,000 people was also within the range that he could accept, and if there were more, I was afraid that Zhang Lu would not be able to explain there.

After getting reliable news from Zhang Yan, Yan Pu was leaving, and agreed with Zhang Yan that after half a month, the Western Expeditionary Army could set off, and he waited for the arrival of the Western Expeditionary Army in Han.

After Yan Pu left Pengcheng, he immediately rushed back to Hanzhong non-stop, his agreement with Zhang Yan was only a unilateral agreement, without Zhang Lu's authorization, so he had to rush back to Hanzhong as soon as possible, tell Zhang Lu a qiē, and on the way think about countermeasures, how to persuade Zhang Lu to accept the fact that he negotiated.

……

Hanzhong County, South Zhengcheng.

Hanzhong Taishou Zhang Lu knelt in front of a statue of a god, his hands were folded, his mouth was reciting some words vigorously, he was wearing a Taoist robe, no hair was tied, his long hair was scattered on his shoulders, his eyes were closed, and he looked very religious.

This is the place where Zhang Lu must come every day, as the leader of the Five Bucket Rice Dao, and the spiritual leader, it is a necessary procedure to lead his subordinates to chant sutras every day, and this procedure is still extremely sacred and cannot be disturbed.

Zhang Lu knelt in the center of the hall, and behind him were lined up many people wearing Taoist robes and dressed the same as him, and the statue they worshipped was not a Buddha, but Zhang Lu's grandfather, the founder of Wudou Midao, known as the demon subduing demons, the omnipotent Zhang Tianshi, Zhang Daoling.

Zhang Daoling's real name is Zhang Ling, because of enlightenment to become an immortal, but he does not want to see the world persecuted by demons and monsters, so he stayed in Qingcheng Mountain, did not enter the fairy world, but became a heavenly master with the magic power of the heavens, instead of the fairy world to subdue demons and eliminate demons, and opened a sect, called the Zhengyi faction, all those who enter the sect must pay five buckets of rice, so it is also called five buckets of rice.

Of course, the legend of Zhang Tianshi is just a legend, but the Wudou Rice Dao founded by Zhang Ling is real, and there are more and more people who enter the Tao, and a big sect is gradually formed.

After Zhang Ling's death, his son said that Zhang Ling was feathered into an immortal and escaped into the fairy world, while Zhang Ling's son continued to lead the Wudou Midao, and later Zhang Lu took over, but due to the persecution of Liu Zhang, all the Wudou Midao migrated to Hanzhong and entrenched in Hanzhong for many years.

Zhang Lu, Zhang Wei and many of his subordinates were reciting the scriptures together in a devout manner, when this important thing was cooked, Zhang Lu got up, turned around and was about to announce the end of the event, but suddenly saw Yan Pu coming from outside, and in a hurry, before he could speak, Yan Pu had already come to him, knelt on the ground, hugged his fists towards him and said: "Lord, can you take a step to speak?" ”

Zhang Lu found that Yan Pu's application was wrong, so he announced the end of the event, and all the leaders of the Taoist sect left, leaving only his younger brother Zhang Wei by his side, and then said to Yan Pu: "Is it that the imperial court is unwilling to send troops?" (To be continued......)