Han Sui did not severely punish the candidate, but only punished the candidate for a few months, and also returned his son Hou Yin to the candidate.

Although Hou Yin's life was broken, and he was beaten half-dead by Han Cheng, but he saved his life, Hou Xuan also saw with his own eyes that Han Sui and Han Cheng fell out for him, and this matter was also Hou Yin's fault first, Han Sui did not kill Hou Yin, it was already a great mercy, so Hou Xuan didn't care about anything anymore, took Hou Yin to say goodbye to Han Sui, and went back to Shangtai County.

Han Cheng broke off with his father Han Suien, and rode a war horse all the way to the east alone.

Two days later, Ma Chao, Ma Dai, and Pang De returned to Gaoping, the county seat of Anding County.

Gaoping is also an important town on the Silk Road, after Longxian, and then over Liupan Mountain, before arriving at Gaoping City.

Gaoping City was built in the third year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the national strength was at its peak, the military strength was strong, and the Xiongnu continued to launch attacks, opening up a large territory.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in order to strengthen the military defense of the northwest borderland, this set up Anding County, the seat of governance is in Gaoping City (that is, now Guyuan County), because the city is strong, there is no one else in the whole northwest, so it is also called "the first city".

Since the end of the Han Dynasty, the situation in the Liangzhou region has been turbulent, large and small separatist warlords coexist at the same time, Ma Teng was originally just a small official under the account of Liangzhou Thorn Shi Geng, by chance, Ma Teng showed his heroic side in the battle against the Qiang people, and Geng Contempt found out his extraordinary ability, so he was appointed as the military Sima, and from then on he was responsible for leading the troops to fight.

Later, Han Sui, Bian Zhang, Beigong Boyu, Li Wenhou, and Wang Kingdom jointly rebelled, and Geng was defeated and killed. Ma Teng sought self-preservation. So he switched to the side of the rebels. Join the rebels.

But as the imperial army came to quell the rebellion, Ma Teng led his troops to defect to the imperial court again, and in turn helped the imperial court eliminate Beigong Boyu, Li Wenhou, and Wang Guo's department, so Han Sui and Bian Zhang hated it to the core.

Later, Han Sui and Bian Zhang clashed, and Han Sui designed to kill Bian Zhang, and Bian Zhang's subordinates took refuge in Ma Teng.

And then later. Han Sui was unable to resist the attack of the imperial army, and was forced to surrender to the imperial court, and was appointed as the Taishou of Jincheng, and his subordinates also became official soldiers.

Ma Teng was also appointed as a general because of his military exploits and was stationed in the Anding area.

Later, Dong Zhuo rose and became the history of Xiliang Thorn, Han Sui and Ma Teng were attached to Dong Zhuo, and after Dong Zhuo's death. Li Dao, Guo Yan, Fan Chou, Zhang Ji and other old troops took the Xiliang army into Chang'an and once again occupied the power of the imperial court. In order to appease Ma Teng and Han Sui, Han Sui was named the general of Zhenxi and continued to serve as the Taishou of Jincheng, and concurrently served as the assassin of Liangzhou, while Ma Teng was the general of Anxi and led the Taishou of Anding.

However, with the continuous expansion of Han Sui's ambitions, he couldn't tolerate Ma Teng's nail in his eyes, and he also remembered Ma Teng's double-faced and three-faced behavior back then, and hated Ma Teng to the core, so there was often friction between the two armies.

Later, Ma Teng and Han Sui, under the mediation of Yan Wen, a native of Hanyang County, finally decided to live in peace, attack and defend the alliance, and unanimously turned the spearhead to Li Dao, Guo Yan and others in Chang'an, which made Liangzhou gradually stabilized.

However, after Yan Wen's death, Han Sui's ambition sprouted again, and he often had the intention of dealing with Ma Teng, but he never found a chance to attack.

Ma Chao, Ma Dai, and Pang De were nominally going hunting, but in fact they were secretly exploring Han Sui's troop distribution, and this mission was completed and they came back.

The three of them rode war horses, and as soon as they entered Gaoping City, they immediately went to the government office to report some gains from this trip to Ma Teng.

But when they came to the hall of the palace, they saw a man dressed as a literati and with a slightly fat figure standing in the hall, holding a holy decree in his hand, while Ma Teng knelt on the ground and listened with his ears pricked up.

When the three of them arrived at the door of the hall, the fat man dressed as a literati had already finished reading the decree and handed it to Ma Teng.

I saw Ma Teng take the holy decree and said loudly: "Weichen Ma Teng, thank you Lord Longen!" ”

Then, the fat man helped Ma Teng up, and said with a smile: "General Ma, get up quickly, congratulations to General Ma, General Hexima, General Ma has been on the rise, and he has become a guard captain all of a sudden, this guard is one of the nine Qings, and General Ma has been promoted!" ”

Ma Teng stood up, he was tall, and he covered the fat man at once, only to see Ma Teng hugging his fists and saying: "Lord Dong came from afar, and Ma has nothing to entertain, Ma has already asked people to prepare thin wine, and he must not get drunk with Lord Dong!" ”

That fat man is none other than Dong Zhao.

After Dong Zhao heard this, he arched his hand and said: "Since Lord Wei Wei has been warmly invited, then Dong is better to be respectful than to obey his fate." ”

At this time, Ma Chao, Ma Dai, and Pang De walked in from outside the hall, and as soon as they entered the hall, Ma Chao shouted loudly: "Father, the child is back!" ”

Ma Teng and Dong Zhao both looked out together, but saw that Ma Chao had already arrived, and Ma Dai and Pang De followed behind Ma Chao.

Dong Zhao saw that Ma Chao was dignified and extraordinary, with a handsome face, a burly body, and a pair of deep eyes, which left a deep impression on him. On the way to Liangzhou, he had already heard of the name of Ma Chao, who was praised by the Qiang people as "General Shenweitian", and after entering Liangzhou, Ma Chao's reputation became bigger and bigger, because of his handsome appearance, graceful and suave, often wearing white clothes during the battle, wearing bright silver armor, and wearing a brocade robe outside the armor, a war down, the body was not stained with a little blood, and the armor was still bright, so it was also called "Jin Ma Chao".

"Master Ma, this must be Ma Chao and Ma Mengqi, who is known as 'Shenweitian General' by the Qiang people and also known as 'Jin Ma Chao', right?" Dong Zhao took a step ahead of Ma Teng and spoke.

After hearing this, Ma Teng laughed and said: "It's just a false name, I don't think Master Dong has also heard of my son's name, which really makes Ma a little surprised." ”

"Meng Qi is famous in Liangzhou, who doesn't know, who doesn't know? It is really enviable that Master Ma can have such a son! If my son could have half of Meng Qi's talent, then I wouldn't have to worry so much. Alas! ”

Dong Zhao was still praising Ma Chao one second ago, and sighed because of his son the next, which made Ma Teng, as a father, even more proud of his capital.

Ma Teng hurriedly shouted at Ma Chao: "Meng Qi." Come and meet Master Dong! ”

Ma Chao bowed respectfully to Dong Zhao and said, "Meng Qi has seen Master Dong!" ”

Dong Zhao laughed and said, "The young general doesn't have to be polite!" ”

The voice fell. Then he turned his head to Ma Teng and said, "If Master Ma enters Beijing this time." You might as well bring Meng Qi with you, the regent has also heard of Meng Qi's reputation, and he wants to meet Meng Qi, maybe the regent likes Meng Qi very much after seeing him, so he left Meng Qi by his side as an official, and at that time, your father and son are in the capital. Wouldn't it be nice to have a family reunion again? ”

Ma Teng smiled on his face, and after hearing Dong Zhao's words, he also had this intention psychologically, but he didn't dare to show it, he just said to Dong Zhao: "Meng Qi has been in the border for a long time, and he doesn't understand the etiquette of the imperial court, so I'm afraid that if I go to the capital, I will cause some unnecessary trouble, and I will cause ......chaos for Lord Dong."

"Master Ma. In fact, the capital is not what it seems, and the regent is not a person of formality. Again. I'm not afraid of any trouble, and when I came, the regent also made a special statement that I must bring Meng Qi to the capital and see Meng ......Qi with my own eyes."

Before Dong Zhao's words were finished, Ma Chao suddenly interjected: "Father, are you going to the capital?" ”

Ma Teng heard Ma Chao interrupt Dong Zhao's words, and immediately reprimanded: "Why are you so ignorant of the rules? Actually interrupted Lord Dong's words? ”

"Master Ma, don't be so strict, it's not a big deal. I've come from afar, and I'm a little tired, so your father and son will discuss going to the capital first, and I'll take my leave first and go to take a nap. Dong Zhao felt that it was time to leave, and gave Ma Teng, Ma Chao and his son enough space to discuss things.

Ma Teng saw that Dong Zhao was going to rest, so he immediately arranged for Pang De to take Dong Zhao to the guest room, and also instructed Ma Dai to arrange a banquet.

In the blink of an eye, only Ma Teng and Ma Chao were left in the hall.

Ma Chao asked again, "Father, are you going to the capital?" ”

Ma Teng did not speak, but handed over the holy decree in his hand to Ma Chao.

After Ma Chao hurriedly looked at it, he said: "The imperial court has no reason, why did you summon my father to the capital to be a guard captain?" ”

"Naturally, I think I have the qualifications to be a guard captain, I have been guarding Liangzhou for a long time, and Qiang Hu does not dare to approach, and the imperial court naturally wants me to be a guard captain for this reason, right?"

"Is my father going to go to the capital to be a guard captain?" Ma Chao asked again.

Ma Teng stroked a beard hanging on his chin, and there was already a slight look of longing in his eyes, and asked, "What do you think of me going to be this guard captain?" ”

"Not good!" Ma Chao replied crisply.

Ma Teng looked at Ma Chao with surprised eyes and asked, "Do you think it's not good?" ”

Ma Chao said: "Although Wei Wei is ranked in Jiuqing, he is an official in the capital, the capital is so big, there are so many officials, even Jiuqing is only one of them, and it doesn't highlight any importance at all." And the capital is at the feet of the Son of Heaven, its laws must be stricter, my father is used to doing my own thing in the frontier, and I have to abide by many rules when I go to the capital, doesn't my father feel a little free enough? As the saying goes, a companion is like a tiger, the father often stays by the side of the Son of Heaven and the regent, it is inevitable that he will not make any mistakes, in case he angers the Son of Heaven and the regent one day, he only needs a holy decree to send his father into the dungeon, the father has no relatives and no friends in the capital, and he does not know those ministers in the court, and no one pleads for his father at all, so the father is not going to be alone in the dungeon for the rest of his life? ”

After Ma Teng listened, he suddenly found that Ma Chao also had the ability to analyze things, to be honest, he was tired of Liangzhou, don't look at the peace in Liangzhou now, but that was only on the surface, in fact, secretly he and Han Sui were fighting openly and secretly, and he also knew that Han Sui had already had the intention of annexing himself. Therefore, he has always wanted to stay away from Liangzhou, but he has nowhere to go. It happened that the Holy Purpose came at this time and summoned him to be the captain of the guard, as if Heaven had heard his prayer and opened a door for him when he was on all sides.

Moreover, Ma Teng didn't think about what would happen in the capital in the future, he just wanted to leave this place as much as possible, fly away, stay away from this barren land, no longer suffer from wind and sand, bitter cold, he wants fine clothes and jade food, and live the second half of his life in peace.

To put it simply, Ma Teng was not a male lord from the beginning, every step he took was involuntarily, he was planning for himself, if there was a better choice, he would never appear in Liangzhou, for more than ten years, when would he no longer be scared?

Ma Chao saw Ma Teng's thoughtful look, thinking that Ma Teng was considering his words, so he continued: "Father, although Liangzhou is located in a remote area and a bitter cold place, my father is here to say everything and everything, and my father is the only one here, so why covet Jiuqing's false position and go to the capital." Besides, it's not easy to be a Beijing official, the Beijing officials are all gangs, and there is only one father, so he will inevitably be excluded, and when the time comes, if my father wants to return to Liangzhou, it will be even more difficult......"

"Meng Qi, don't say it again, my father already knows what to do, so go down." Ma Teng waved his hand.

"Father, I just came back from Hanyang County and found out about Han Sui's troop deployment, doesn't my father want to hear about it?" Ma Chao asked.

"You go back and mark the map first, and then show me Han Sui's troop distribution map tomorrow!"

"Whoa!" (To be continued......)