Liangzhou, heavy snowfall.

The white-haired wind swirls in the snow, the mountains on both sides of the Zhangjiachuan settlement are dyed with silver, and the winter in Liangzhou is the season when the fur beasts with the thickest fur also hide in the caves. This time of year is the most relaxing time of year for the people of Liangzhou, where the herdsmen drink cold knives made from old and bad grains, and hide in the house in twos and threes to roast the fire to keep warm.

There are three roads leading to Zhangjiachuan outside Sichuan, one road in the east leads directly to Longguan, one road in the southwest is facing Longxian, and the northwest is Chengji County. The three roads are only forty or fifty miles, and there are uneven mountains on both sides, and the mountains that are blocked by layers surround Zhangjiachuan and protect it inside.

To the north, on the highest mountain, rising hundreds of feet from the ground, it is usually majestic and steep, and now the heavy snow covers the mountain even more intimidating. At this time, on the top of the heavy snow peak, a few figures appeared from time to time, and the defenders on the walled city looked up and vaguely saw their Liangzhou pastor.

The figure on the big snow peak is the three brothers of the Ma family and several powerful generals of Liangzhou with a few personal entourage.

Ling Mu looked around, the scene of Zhangjiachuan in this position at a glance, although the white is a little dazzling, Ma Yue can not take care of so much, if Xianbei goes south in the coming year, Han Sui goes east, Zhangjiachuan is the largest garrison force in Liangzhou, they have to estimate how many defenders are needed in the valley, and then distribute the excess military forces to the counties, and hide the troops in the people to form a defensive line.

Ma Yue wore an old sheepskin jacket covered with iron armor, and a wild bear skin cloak, thick and warm, although the iron armor was covered with a thick layer of frost, the thick and hairy wild bear skin was wrapped around the body to drive away the cold, and he looked around at the herd of cattle and horses in Zhangjiachuan, which was even more inspiring to make people's hearts hot.

This is my territory!

There has never been anything that makes him feel so agitated, the land that the horse has stepped on is his territory, standing on the peak, Ma Yue understands what power is, why so many people want to fight for hegemony, even if the lives of the people of Li are ruined, even if the blood of the Pao Ze brothers is like a river, they have to fight for hegemony!

"San Lang, how many cavalry guards do you think Kawari will need?" Ma Teng was also dressed in the same attire, looked down and said: "If a pass is set up on the narrow road connecting Longguan, 1,500 soldiers with bows and horses at the three passes will be enough, and there will be a thousand people in the middle of the river." ”

Ma Yue nodded lightly, but pointed to the valleys on both sides and said: "Brother has noticed, the narrowest is a thousand steps away from the walled city, and the gate of the walled city is more than three hundred steps wide, and the mountain walls on both sides are a hundred feet high. ”

With Ma Yue's fingers, several people looked sideways, full of surprise, Ma Zong asked: "Douzi, you have a good idea, but how to build plank roads on the cliffs on both sides?" ”

Ma Yue waved his hand and smiled, looked at Liu Bad and asked, "How, it is possible to build?" ”

"Yes, you only need to cut down that piece of forest and pile up a ten-zhang high platform with huge trees, accumulate a torch of stone for a mound, hammer and chisel it is like cutting rot, and the forty-zhang high bow arrow can shoot two hundred steps, who can attack?" Liu Bad mentioned his own hand, waved his hand and smiled: "The snow will melt in the spring of the next year, and the lord will allocate a thousand people to me, and I can build it before the summer!" ”

Hearing Liu Bad's words here, Ma Yu tilted his head disdainfully, and asked pointingly: "San Lang, is this Liu family kid okay?" ”

Liu Bad's face turned red, Ma Yue was surrounded by many military generals, and even Sun Yi, Peng Shi and others, who ran errands, also had lords on their bodies, but he was the only one who was a craftsman, and he was not treated preferentially, and he had suffered a lot of white eyes in Zhangjiachuan for more than a year, and now Ma Yue finally came back, and finally had a fighting man who knew his own skills and respected this craft came back, turned over and looked at it once, and waited for Ma Yue to answer.

Ma Yue did not disappoint Liu Bad, waved his hand and joked at the horse, pointed at Liu Bad and said: "You know that Liu Bad used to be the Shikuling in Luoyang, and the mausoleum of the first emperor was supervised by his master, so you can be absolutely assured in terms of craftsmanship." ”

Saying that, Ma Yue nodded, settled the matter, and said: "Not only here, but also the three passages must be built like this, relying on such a heaven-sent place as the mountain, if it is not used, wouldn't it be wasted?" ”

"This ...... Is it the same for Longguan? Liu Bad's words didn't continue, Longguan is Si Li, but the imperial court! Ma Yue's behavior like this, is it possible that he will have to go to war with the imperial court in the future, isn't that a rebellion?

Not only Liu Bad, but everyone, including Jia Xu, looked at Ma Yue in surprise, Ma Teng thought for a while, and said: "San Lang, if you want to start a war with Han Sui, a war with Xianbei, it doesn't matter if you are a brother, but face the east and dominate...... Forget it, right? ”

Ma Yue was defeated from Luoyang with hatred, to be honest, everyone is afraid of him at the moment when he mentioned the idea of fighting in the east, in the entire Liangzhou, except for Ma Yue and Dong Zhuo who came back from Luoyang, none of them wanted to start a war with the imperial court.

"Where do you want to go, how can I have a disobedient heart." Ma Yue shook his head, looked at everyone's anti-emergency and said with a smile: "Zhangjiachuan is surrounded on three sides, but the east side leads directly to Longguan. If there is a big defeat in the coming year, Zhangjiachuan will be the last battlefield, the enemy occupies the entire territory of Liangzhou, and will naturally transfer troops from Longguan to attack Zhangjiachuan. ”

Hearing him say this, everyone came back to their senses and felt that this should be the case. Jia Xu, who was behind everyone, narrowed his eyes slightly, wrapped his hands in a wide sleeved robe, wrapped in a leather jacket and cloak, and had a smile on the corner of his mouth.

"Leng Huhu, how about San Lang, let's go down the mountain?" Cheng Yin's face was already red from the cold, and he and Cheng Yi moved Ma Yue down the mountain.

Ma Yue originally wanted to explore the topography of the middle of the river, and the current goal was achieved, but unfortunately the pen and ink were frozen and could not be drawn, otherwise he would have to withstand the cold wind on the top of this mountain to outline the surroundings. At this point, Ma Yue looked at everyone's frozen red faces, beckoned and said, "Let's go, let's go down the mountain." ”

It is difficult to go up the mountain, and it is even more difficult to go down the mountain, but fortunately, there are steps on the mountain, and the attendants have cleared a passage in front, and several Liangzhou adults have returned to the city without danger.

The wooden door could not stop the cold wind, Ma Yu personally exchanged the bear skin from the hands of the walled hunters and hung it in the door, lit a big bonfire, and everyone sat around to warm up and drink spirits, and it took a long time to warm up their bodies.

Ma Yue said: "I plan to leave 3,000 soldiers and horses in Sichuan, and the rest of the sergeants are scattered all over the place, led by their respective captains, who are stationed in a county, a county in a song, and a team in the li. In his spare time, he grazes horses and farms, and gathers troops to fight. What do you think? ”

As soon as Ma Yue said this, everyone quarreled around the fire, no one was willing, Jia Xu shook his head lightly at Ma Yue, and did not speak.

Ma Yu said: "San Lang, we have a few brothers, the two brothers won't talk about it, Cheng Yin Chengyi has his own tribe under both hands, not to mention the people who are rooted in Zhangjiachuan to herd horses and feed sheep, this time they can divide all the people of their tribe, how can this work?" ”

Li Zhan answered: "Isn't it the same for your horses and monkeys, the more than 1,000 brothers with the most complete armor in Sichuan are all tenants under your hands, who will plough your fifty hectares of land for you in the coming year?" ”

"You are not the same, the old brothers are all supported by you, and they are definitely not happy when they are dismissed and go home to farm."

"The little cubs under my hands are different, they respect heroes and heroes the most, and our state pastor is this!" Li Zhan waved his hand indifferently and smiled at Ma Yue and raised his thumb, and said with a smile: "They must listen to the state pastor, I will also listen, the state pastor said, where do you want me to go?" ”

Ma Yue narrowed his eyes and smiled, and said slowly: "Brother Li, do you want a county, or a county?" ”

Ma Teng and Ma Yue passed through the bottom, these old brothers and Han Wenyue fought no one really had the strength to die, especially this Li Zhan, how fierce the horse bandits under his command were, but they never won the battle against Han Sui, every time the troops lost their troops and retreated, the seven hundred horse bandits made him fight into two thousand people under his command, his men and horses fought more and more, but the land in Liangzhou became less and less.

It's the same with horse play, in the end, it's the earliest brother, he still works hard to fight, but he is greedy after being in a high position, with 1.2 million steps of land under his name, and the most elite soldiers and horses in Liangzhou are his tenants in his spare time, and he has to lift a hoe to work in the field. Cheng Yincheng and the two tribal leaders were okay, but they coveted sheep and horses, and occasionally provoked wars between Qiang tribes to take the opportunity to embezzle the population and plunder the wealth.

Now these old pillars are getting rich one by one, but the Ma brothers run Liangzhou and keep using their family assets to fill the financial vacancies, but they are getting poorer and poorer.

In short, Ma Yue understood that these old brothers were no longer sharp now in a high position, and the desperate energy they had in the past was gone. But he is the meaning of every bit of blame, the brothers desperately defend the prestige of the Ma clan in Liangzhou, they get some gold and silver, greedy for some real estate, but in the final analysis, the co-owner of Liangzhou, all rely on these 'little princes of Liangzhou' who grew up together, what does he blame these old brothers.

These old brothers, in terms of seniority, which one of them is not allowed to call brother?

"In this way, there are 18,000 soldiers in Sichuan, how many soldiers and horses are there in the eldest brother?" Ma Yue asked Ma Teng, and Ma Teng replied: "There are more than 2,000 brothers under your second brother for my brother, what's wrong?" ”

Ma Zong didn't know what Ma Yue wanted to do, so he looked at Ma Yue with a blank face.

"Your brothers are dividing five hundred soldiers and horses with my eldest brother, and three thousand are stationed in Sichuan. The four counties of Hanyang are commanded by me, and they are also the base camp of our Han army in Liangzhou. Anding County is divided into three parts, Brother Li, Brother Cheng, Brother Cheng three people stationed together, divided into counties, the soldiers hid in the township, once the war started, the team is gathering people and horses to gather to the military marquis, the military marquis to the captain to gather troops, quickly stop, together against the thief army. If you are free, you will cultivate the land and eliminate the trouble of soldiers' salaries, what do you think? ”

At this moment, no one can say anything, Ma Yue led Longxian Chengji, this is the city that really faces the front line of the rebels, Ma Yue didn't say anything, what else do they have to say.

Ma Zong coughed twice with a smile, and said to Ma Yue with a wicked smile: "San Lang, I think this matter is so decided, it's good, if you want me to say, everything is bullshit, it's almost time, shouldn't you think about getting married?" ”

Everyone's originally somewhat wooden faces suddenly smiled together, and they all looked at Ma Yue with an intriguing gaze.

If it weren't for the thick skin, I was afraid that I would be ashamed.