Facts have proved that Li Liqi's use of Ma Teng to control Fufeng County is undoubtedly a wise move.

When Chencang City was in danger, Ma Teng personally climbed the city tower, took the lead, and defended the city, making Zhang Wei's army unable to attack for a long time, and directly thwarted Zhang Lu and the Central Plains allies to respond to the huge conspiracy to attack Chang'an.

The reason why Li Li re-employed Ma Teng was because the Ma family was originally a Fufeng clan, and letting Ma Teng sit in Fufeng County was actually to urge the major families of Fufeng to support him, so as to resist the Hanzhong soldiers from attacking Chang'an.

However, Li Li claimed to the outside world that he would not avoid his relatives, so that Ma Teng could not only be grateful to him and loyal to him, but also achieve the strategic goal of keeping the enemy from the outside. It can be seen that his mastery of people has been used perfectly, and the emperor's posture is becoming more and more mature.

The time for this discussion in the lobby was not long, and there was no heavy decision-making, just to inquire about the recent battle situation, so as to understand the battle situation as much as possible and wait for the opportunity to attack and break the enemy.

In fact, during the march, Li Li had already understood the battle situation clearly, and now let Ma Teng tell it again, in fact, it was just to inform Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun and others of the military situation through Ma Teng's mouth, saving him from conveying it personally.

At present, the Xiliang Army and the Hanzhong Army are in a state of confrontation, and the Hanzhong soldiers and horses turned from attack to defense, putting on a posture of defending the pass, waiting for the Xiliang Army to attack.

Before that, the battle situation was indeed very unfavorable for the Xiliang army. On the eastern front, Chen Cang City was heavily pressed, and Zhang Wei's army attacked the city repeatedly; On the battlefield of the Western Front, Yang Ang, the general under Zhang Lu, used his troops in a good way, sending a small force of soldiers and horses to contain more than 10,000 tiger battalions and cavalry under the city, while he himself led a large army to attack the city and conquer the city. In half a month, most of Wudu County was pocketed.

However, since the end of the Battle of Sili, Li Liban's division returned to Chang'an. Subsequently, the news of the return of the Xiliang army spread far and wide, causing the army under Zhang Lu to move when he heard the wind and hurriedly shrank his troops. On the battlefield on the Western Front, Yang Ang decisively abandoned several cities close to Longyou, occupied the fortified city and defended it, and no longer dared to wantonly send troops to plunder the surrounding towns. Zhang Wei's army under Chencang City retreated thirty miles and retreated to the mountains to set up camp. Like Yang Ang, he took the initiative to occupy dangerous places and actively defended, always guarding against the Xiliang army from going out of the city to attack and kill.

At the same time, in order to prevent the Western Liang army from attacking the territory of Hanzhong. Zhang Lu once again recruited 30,000 troops to garrison Yangping Pass. At this point, on the border between Liangzhou and Hanzhong, Zhang Lu successively dispatched 100,000 troops to arrange a defensive front, as if he was facing a great enemy. Embattled.

It is precisely because Zhang Lu mobilized troops and horses so aggressively. On the contrary, it attracted Li Li's attention, and he was even a little curious.

It should be known that although Hanzhong is located in the main road between Chang'an and Xichuan, it has a vast area, fertile land and abundant products, and is an important county that guards the throat of Shu Road; But it's still just a county after all.

And the time when Zhang Lu occupied Hanzhong was roughly the same as Li Li's appointment as Wuwei Taishou, that is, he occupied Hanzhong in the second year of Chuping, so in a sense, he and Li Li started at the same time. The only difference is. After Zhang Lu occupied Hanzhong, he died down, and was willing to guard Hanzhong and enjoy wealth; And Li Li is different. After establishing a foothold in Wuwei County, he continued to conquer the east and west, vigorously expanding his territory, and became the overlord of the western part of Liangzhou in only one year, and occupied the two states of Yongliang in the second year.

Perhaps stimulated by Li Li's growing day by day, Zhang Lu was ready to move after the death of Liu Yan, the pastor of Yizhou, and took advantage of Liu Zhang's first leadership of Yizhou to grab territory, and forcibly seized more than ten cities in the four counties in the north of Ba County, and occupied Jiameng Pass, which has the potential to send troops to seize Yizhou. Under the persecution of Zhang Lude's inch, Liu Zhang, who was lazy by nature, became angry and angry, mobilized heavy troops to garrison Ba County, and sent additional troops and horses to strictly guard the passes everywhere. At this point, the dispute between Zhang Lu and Liu Zhang gradually calmed down, but the city that was robbed by Zhang Lu was still in his hands, which increased the nine counties in Hanzhong to thirteen counties, and the territory and population increased by three percent.

At the same time, Zhang Lu has always coveted the counties of Wudu and Longyou, which border Hanzhong, and always wants to pounce on them and take a bite. Long before seizing the four counties of Ba County, he privately sent troops to occupy several cities in Wudu County, and his tentacles extended to the entire territory of Wudu County, which was quite likely to seize Wudu County.

Unexpectedly, Li Li quickly pacified Yongliang Prefecture, and sent heavy troops to Wudu County, putting on a posture of taking advantage of the situation to capture Hanzhong, which frightened Zhang Lu to hurriedly shrink his forces, return all the cities he had grabbed, and retreat outside the border. However, Zhang Lu's gang was not a fuel-efficient lamp, and when he withdrew his troops, he forcibly abducted tens of thousands of people and emptied several cities, resulting in hundreds of miles of desolate and desolate counties near the Hanzhong border.

At that time, the generals such as Guo Yan and Ma Chao, who were ordered to garrison Wudu, Jincheng and other places, were extremely annoyed by this, and immediately went to the table Li Li to send troops to attack Zhang Lu and take Hanzhong in one go. However, Li Li was forced by the pressure of grain and grass, and in view of the fact that Xiliang was initially settled and urgently needed to maintain stability and transition for a period of time, he had to reject the construction of Guo Yan and Ma Chao, and decided not to send troops to attack Zhang Lu for the time being.

Because of this, Zhang Lu of Hanzhong was able to divide Hanzhong, become the king, and do whatever he wanted. It is said that when Li Li was promoted to hussar general, Zhang Lu wanted to go to the court and ask him to be crowned the king of Hanning, and the wolf's ambition was clearly revealed. Later, he was dissuaded by the strategist Yan Pu, and stated that it was powerful, so Zhang Lu gave up, otherwise he would be the first princely force to ask for the edict of the princes and kings, and he would definitely attract a large-scale crusade from the Xiliang army.

Only two years apart, Zhang Lu was still thinking about it after all, and he couldn't help but send troops to attack Liangzhou again, trying to take advantage of the war between Li Li and the Kwantung princes to send troops to attack Chang'an and reap the benefits. But he never expected that the Kwantung princes would be defeated so quickly, and he didn't expect that Li Li had already been on guard against him, leaving Guo Yan to lead 10,000 Qinglong battalion cavalry to be stationed in Longyou, and temporarily appointed Ma Teng as the Fufeng Taishou to guard Chencang. In addition, Li Li also dispatched Ma Chao to lead the Huben battalion to aid Guo Yan during the war, and prevented Yang Ang from leading troops to attack the hinterland of Liangzhou in time.

Now Li Li mobilized three main battalions to attack Hanzhong, and stationed a fully staffed battalion of 50,000 soldiers in Hanyang County, as well as 20,000 county soldiers led by Guo Yan and Teng Yu into Jincheng. In addition, the thousands of soldiers who were originally stationed in Chencang and the original tens of thousands of county soldiers in Wudu County gathered no less than 150,000 heavy soldiers on the south bank of Weishui alone.

Therefore, Li Li did not take Hanzhong Zhang Lu to heart at all, and this western expedition was not just as simple as recovering the lost territory, it was imperative to seize the land of Hanzhong.

However, when Li Li listened to Ma Teng's report on the military situation, he was quite surprised, or very surprised, and couldn't understand why Zhang Lu, Hanzhong, who only had one county, was so arrogant and dared to risk the world's disapproval and try to usurp the throne of Hanning. What made him even more curious was why there were 100,000 soldiers and horses in Hanzhong County, and it seemed that these 100,000 troops were not all the strength of Zhang Lu, and there should be 20,000 or 30,000 defenders in Zhengcheng in the south of Hanzhong County, or even more. This means that Zhang Lu has at least 150,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, where did so many soldiers and horses come from, can it be said that the population of Hanzhong County is already as many as one million?

After hearing Li Li's inquiry, Ma Teng replied: "The lord doesn't know anything. Hanzhong is the land of the great Han Dynasty Longxing, after more than 400 years of the Han Dynasty, the population in the territory was once the first among the counties in Yizhou, the registered population is more than 100,000 households, the territory is extensive, the land is fertile, and there are passes and obstacles such as lofty mountains and mountains around it, there have been few foreign barbarian invasions and disturbances, and the territory is stable and peaceful.

Therefore, as early as when Zhang Jiao preached the Taiping Tao in the prefectures and counties of the Central Plains, there were also preachers in Hanzhong. This person wandered in Hanzhong, Xichuan, Jingzhou and Liangzhou, cured the disease and saved people, and the cured person only needed to pay for it with five buckets of rice, so it was called 'five buckets of rice'. Subsequently, Zhang Jiao unveiled the incident in Jizhou Julu, and this person also raised troops in Hanzhong, which seemed to have been premeditated and echoed from afar, trying to subvert the Han Dynasty in one fell swoop and change the dynasty. Then, the Taiping Dao initiated by Zhang Jiao was quickly wiped out by the official army, and the Hanzhong Wudoumi Sect was also requisitioned and suppressed by the official army. The only difference between the two Taoists is that the Zhang Jiao brothers were all ambushed, and their followers were repeatedly expropriated by the imperial court, and they rushed for their lives; The Wudoumi Sect is different, the Taoist ancestor Zhang Ling was not captured, but died of illness in the mountains, and then his son continued to lead the sect, continued to grow and develop, and has continued to this day.

And this Taoist ancestor Zhang Ling of the Five Bucket Rice Sect is the grandfather of Zhang Lu in Hanzhong today. Therefore, although Zhang Lu only occupied Hanzhong four years ago, the foundation of the Zhang clan in Hanzhong is extremely deep, and there are more than 100,000 followers of the Wudoumi Sect alone. In addition, it is said that Zhang Lu was also the tenth grandson of Zhang Liang, the founding father of the Western Han Dynasty, and the patriarch of the Zhang clan, a large family in Hanzhong. Because of this, after Zhang Lu and Zhang Xiu killed Taishou Sugu, and then got rid of Zhang Xiu, they easily occupied Hanzhong, and the foundation was solid, and there was no more trouble for several years.

At the same time, since the turmoil in Luoyang, the states of the Central Plains and the two states of Xiliang have been in chaos, and the heroes have divided their territories and conquered each other, leading a large number of people to flee to Hanzhong and Yizhou. In order to enter Yizhou, in addition to the waterway and Jingzhou, you must pass through Hanzhong, so many people were left in Hanzhong, which made the population of Hanzhong grow dramatically. Today, the registered population of the Hanzhong government has reached 150,000 households, and there are not a few people who have not registered in the government. Therefore, the population of the whole territory of Hanzhong is really quite large, if a family is estimated by four people, there are at least 500,000 people in Hanzhong at present. ”

Speaking of this, Ma Teng's tone was stunned, and after seeing Li Li's expression as usual, he continued: "Before this, there were seventy or eighty thousand soldiers and horses in Hanzhong, so Zhang Lu dared to have a relationship with us and other Xiliang princes. This time the lord's army marched westward, Zhang Lu was bound to be frightened, and he was bound to temporarily form an army of the Wudoumi Sect, so that he could raise an army of more than 100,000 in a short period of time. These Wudoumi sect members themselves are not strong in combat, and most of them are honest farmers, but these people are very fanatical, and they obey Zhang Lu's orders, so that they are not afraid of death when fighting, and they are very difficult. ”

After Ma Teng's detailed explanation, Li Li couldn't help frowning, his eyes were cold, and his expression was very solemn. Obviously, this expedition against Zhang Lu in Hanzhong is by no means as easy as he imagined, and this Zhang Lu is not a soft persimmon, otherwise Yizhou Liu Zhang would not have suffered many losses at the hands of Zhang Lu, but he couldn't help him.

――――――――――― To be Continued ―――――― (To be Continued......