Ma Chao had traveled west once before, thanks to the results of the last westward trip, he was very familiar with the western region of Liangzhou, he led the army to arrive at Lijing City first, at this time the Lijing people happened to return from the Western Regions, after the horse thieves in Heli Mountain were no longer troubled, their business also plummeted, and there was no longer a caravan willing to pay a high price to hire them.

When the Lijing people were depressed, Ma Chao came and directly stated his position to the leader of the Lijing people, asking all the Lijing people to join his subordinates and follow him as soldiers, not only do they have food, drink and military salaries, but even their families will be properly arranged. And there is only one condition, from then on, the Lijing people only obey the orders of Ma Chao alone, and swear never to betray it.

Lijing people thought about it again and again, and finally agreed to Ma Chao, and from then on, they officially became Ma Chao's subordinates.

Ma Chao did not stay in Lijing City for a long time, but took the Lijing people who were accustomed to fighting directly to the west, and when he arrived at Heli Mountain, Jiang Chao, the leader of the horse thieves who had already surrendered to Ma Chao, also joined Ma Chao's army, and provided war horses for the Lijing people who did not have horses.

The group continued to march westward and soon arrived in Dunhuang, where Ma Chao sent someone to inform Gai Shun, hoping that Gai Shun could join his army and contribute to the drive out of the Xianbei people.

Gai Shun, who was as wide as the county seat, was extremely excited when he heard that Ma Chao was leading the army to come, coupled with his personal admiration for Ma Chao, he immediately agreed to join Ma Chao's army, and was willing to be driven by Ma Chao.

After Ma Chao arrived in Guangzhi County, he rested for two days, and then sent people to Dunhuang to get in touch with Suo Guang, preparing to come to meet with the outside and wipe out the Xianbei people on the periphery of Dunhuang in one fell swoop.

Yang Fu became a messenger sent by Ma Chao to Dunhuang to contact Suo Guang. Yang Fu took Ma Chao's instructions. Disguise yourself as a merchant. Mixed into Dunhuang City, and after meeting with Suo Guang, he directly explained the importance of this military operation.

Suo Guang deigned to be under the Xianbei people for more than a year, and secretly trained an army, waiting for such a day. Now that such a day has finally arrived, Suo Guang discussed with Yang Fu and worked out a plan to combine the inside and the outside.

Yang Fu then quickly returned to Guangzhi County, and went back to pay a sigh to Ma Chao.

Suo Guang's strategy was simple. Let Ma Chao enter Dunhuang City in batches dressed up as a caravan, and then he is responsible for arranging a qiē.

In order to avoid unnecessary casualties, Suo Guang prepared a grand dinner in Dunhuang a day later, invited the Xianbei people into the city to attend the banquet, drunk these Xianbei people with fine wine, and killed several leaders of the Xianbei people.

Ma Chao listened. decisively agreed to Suo Guang's strategy and asked his subordinates to remove their armor one after another. Hide all the armor and weapons on the carriage, disguise them as a caravan, and let the Lijing people be responsible for protecting them and blend into Dunhuang City.

Early the next morning, Ma Chao began to arrange for a team of thousands of people to be divided into more than a dozen batches of caravans to mix into Dunhuang City.

In the evening, all of Ma Chao's subordinates had arrived in Dunhuang City, and they were secretly hiding in various important places in Dunhuang City, quietly waiting for the night's action.

Suo Guang had already sent out an invitation, and the Xianbei people who were cruising outside had long wanted to enter Dunhuang City to enjoy it, but because of the agreement with Suo Guang, they had never had the opportunity to enter the city.

This time, Suo Guang sent an invitation, hoping that all the Xianbei cavalry outside Dunhuang City would come into the city to express his gratitude to the Xianbei people for guarding Dunhuang City.

The Xianbei people didn't know what to do, and they all happily entered Dunhuang City, but they didn't know that this foot was stepping into the ghost gate, and after tonight, they would never see the sun tomorrow.

About 5,000 Xianbei people, one after another into the Dunhuang City, Suo Guang in the square in front of the Taishou Mansion set up a grand bonfire party, and invited the dancers from the Western Regions to present some dances for these Xianbei people, in addition, wine and delicacies, are not stingy to entertain the Xianbei people, Xianbei people enjoy this treatment very much, eat meat, drink wine, are elated.

Suo Guang even sat with several leaders of the Xianbei people, and there were two dancers sitting next to each leader, constantly persuading the leaders to drink, and the leaders were fascinated by these dancers, and unconsciously, they were all drunk and unconscious.

At that time, the dinner party had come to an end, and the leader of Xianbei had already drunk and lay asleep in the hall, and the square outside the Taishou Mansion was also snoring like thunder.

At this time, groups of black shadows quietly poured out from all directions of the Taishou Mansion, holding cold and shining blades in their hands, and cautiously walked to the middle of the crowd, and used their sharp blades to directly stab into the hearts of these Xianbei people, or cut off the heads of these Xianbei people.

For a moment, the air was filled with the pungent smell of blood, mixed with the smell of alcohol, and filled the entire square in front of the Taishou Mansion. In a short time, the square in front of the Taishou Mansion was already full of blood, and those Xianbei people all died in their sleep.

With only a stick of incense, about 5,000 Xianbei people died quietly in Dunhuang City.

At this time, Taishou Suo Guang walked out of the Taishou Mansion, followed by several guards, carrying a few bloody heads in their hands, glanced at the mess in the square, and finally showed a faint smile on the corner of his mouth.

Overnight, all the Xianbei people were killed, and the horses they rode naturally became Ma Chao's bag.

However, Ma Chao and Suo Guang were not too happy to kill these Xianbei people, because in addition to the Xianbei people they killed, there were also two Xianbei cavalry teams stationed in Yumen Pass and Yangguan, each team was about 3,000 people, and if they learned the news of Dunhuang City, they would inevitably lead their troops to attack Dunhuang City. At that time, the city of Dunhuang will be in the midst of war.

For this reason, Suo Guang built a yì to Ma Chao, the first strike was strong, divided the troops into two ways, disguised as Xianbei people, rushed to Yumen Pass and Yangguan in the starry night, and after opening the city gate, he suddenly attacked, and won a big victory.

Only in this way can the threat of the Xianbei people be eliminated to a minimum. Even if there are fish that slip through the net to go back to move the rescue troops, in this back and forth, Ma Teng's army has also arrived in Dunhuang, ready to deploy and defend, as long as they stick to it without fighting, the Xianbei people will have no way.

Ma Chao agreed with Suo Guang's construction, so he divided the troops into two ways, he himself led an army, and the other army was led by Pang De, Ma Dai and Wang Shuang followed Pang De's army to attack Yangguan, and he went with Jiang Chao, Gai Shun, Yang Fu and others to attack Yumen Pass, Suo Guang and Li Jing people stayed in Dunhuang City, temporarily closed the gate of Dunhuang City, a qiē caravan must enter the city after strict inspection, only need to enter, not allowed to go out, waiting for the news of Ma Chao's triumph, and the arrival of Ma Teng's army.

So, Ma Chao and Pang De all changed into Xianbei clothes, and Suo Guang asked two people who were proficient in Xianbei to follow them respectively as a way to open the city gate.

The two armies rushed to Yumen Pass and Yangguan in the starry night, and arrived in the afternoon of the next day, but neither army launched an attack on Yumen Pass and Yangguan, but first found a place to hide secretly to rest, and waited for nightfall before attacking.

After dark, in the middle of the night, Ma Chao and Pang De estimated that the Xianbei people in the pass were asleep, so they led their troops to the bottom of Yumen Pass and Yangguan, and after opening the city gate, Ma Chao and Pang De immediately attacked Yumen Pass and Yangguan.

In the face of Ma Chao, Pang De's sudden attack, the Xianbei people in Yumen Pass and Yangguan were panicked, after a battle, the Xianbei people in the city could not resist, most of them were killed, and a very small part of them escaped from the pass and went towards Dunhuang City.

However, a very small part of the Xianbei people did not know that Dunhuang City had been occupied, and when they arrived in Dunhuang City, Suo Guang put these people into the city, and then attacked the Xianbei people on the spot.

So far, the Xianbei people who occupied Dunhuang were all killed, did not run away a person, and Ma Teng led the army to arrive in Dunhuang two days later, and there was no time to rest, Ma Teng immediately arranged defenses, sent troops to garrison various important places in Dunhuang, and the sky above Dunhuang once again fluttered up the long-lost "Han" character flag.

After occupying Dunhuang, Ma Chao asked Ma Teng to guard Dunhuang, and he took Pang De, Wang Shuang, Ma Dai, Yang Fu and others to Juyan in Zhangye's vassal state. Ma Chao was worried that Zhang Yan's army was too small to win, so he wanted to occupy Juyan City, which was the closest city to Jiluo Mountain, and the two places were about six or seven hundred miles apart, where he might be able to get news that Zhang Yan was at war with the Xianbei people.

Ma Teng agreed with Ma Chao's opinion and asked Ma Chao to take away 10,000 cavalry, and Ma Chao took the most elite Ma Jiajun and quickly left Dunhuang and went to Juyan City in Zhangye's vassal state.

And Ma Teng, with the assistance of Zhuge Liang and Suo Guang, stayed in Dunhuang City and was fully responsible for the security and defense here.

……

The vast desert, the dead sea of sand.

At a glance, there was a monotonous yellow everywhere, not even a single tree, and the vastness of the desert made each of them feel tired, as if they would never be able to go out.

The scorching sun hung high in the sky, and the desert smoked. Zhang Yan and the others set up a canopy, but the sand was so hot that they couldn't stand or sit. For the first time, Zhang Yan felt the horror of the desert, the desert was vast, vast, boundless, boundless, endless, and there was only sand as far as the eye could see.

The cavalry of 13,000 men lost the impetus to advance in this vast desert, and the heat was unbearable, and the men and horses were thirsty, and the water they brought was drunk and drunk, and if they could not find a water source, they would probably die of thirst in this desert.

Zhang Yan and others set off from Guzang City, all the way north, and entered this desert, at first Zhang Yan thought that they could go out, but Zhang Yan underestimated the area of this desert, and now let them fall into it, walking for several days, but never saw the head, and the most important thing is that Zhang Yan They have reached the point of cutting off the water.

Are they really going to die in the desert? (To be continued......)