Ma Yue won the heart of the army for the soldiers, and Cheng Li's salary proved his talent and won the respect of the generals of the horse department.

Subsequently, Ma Yue first led his troops to retreat to Dong'e, and Li Jian, the supervising army, sent messengers with secret letters to Luoyang through various postal posts and fast horses, and Tunqu at all levels of the Changshui Battalion visited the homes of various big surnames and wealthy families in the southern part of Dongjun to persuade them to donate their fields. The southward relocation plan of the people in the northern part of Dongjun was intensively formulated in the Changshui Camp Army, centered on Dong'e County.

Just when Ma Yue was begging for ministers from Luoyang in the name of the emperor, far away in Liangzhou, the northwest frontier of the Han Dynasty, the Ma family in Longxian County was experiencing an unprecedented difficult period.

In the city of Longxian County, the middle hall of the Ma family's mansion gathers all the backbones and henchmen of the Ma family except Ma Yue.

Ma Teng, who is in charge of the Ma family, and the Ma Zong brothers knelt at the top. Ma Chao, the second generation of the Ma family, Ma Dai stands sideways behind him. Sixteen-year-old Ma Chao and fifteen-year-old Ma Dai have grown into heroic young men, surrounded by heroic professors with excellent martial arts, and both of them are already proficient in bowing and horses.

Beside the Ma brothers, there were Yang Qiu, the Ma family generals headed by the candidate, Cheng Yin, the chieftain with the foreign surname headed by Cheng Yi, Pei Qian of Ma Play and Pei Valve, and Zhang Shiping, who was in charge of commercial affairs.

After Ma Yue left Liangzhou, these people centered on the Ma family used their own power and prestige, protected by Ma Teng, Yang Qiu, and Ma Wan to control the military power of the two counties, and assisted by Ma Zong's expansion of the huge trade route based on the excellent horses outside the Yumen Pass and the hinterland of Xianbei, supplemented by the salt produced in Anyi, Hedong, from Jiuquan County in Liangzhou to Luoyang, the capital division, and became an interest group.

Business is booming, bringing their already loose ties closer together.

Five days ago, led by Ma Zong and presided over by Ma Teng, an invitation was sent to a group of relatives and friends who were friendly to the Ma family, inviting everyone to gather in Longxian County to discuss the difficulties encountered recently.

After not seeing each other for several months, everyone was busy greeting each other after meeting, until everyone arrived, Ma Teng tapped a few cases with his fingers and said: "Since all the brothers have arrived, Shiping will talk about the profits of the trade route since October." ”

The baby-faced Zhang Shiping got up and bowed to everyone, and then said: "Last month, six caravans from Hedong and Hanyang counties, a total of 234 people, escorted 190 horses and 240 stones of salt. He was ambushed thirty-three times, 210 people were lost, 190 horses were robbed, and 240 stone wells were salted. ”

As soon as Zhang Shiping's words fell, Cheng Yin patted a few cases and shouted: "Damn, this is definitely premeditated!" Otherwise, how can you be unlucky to do this! ”

Pei Qian's eyes widened even more, his little sister died in her early years because of Ma Yue, and the Ma family summoned him because he didn't want to come, not to mention that His Majesty needed to use some means to block the Sili checkpoint through Liangzhou, how could the Ma family be responsible for Pei's private salt trade route in Liangzhou, and the Ma family did a good job. Who knew that something like this happened just when he thought the Ma family was doing well.

Ma Teng clapped his palms, signaled everyone to be quiet, and then said, "Chengyi, Zhangjiachuan Racecourse." ”

Cheng Yi couldn't hold back his anger for a long time, tilted his neck left and right, got up and said: "A certain tribe is a branch of Baimaqiang, you know it. After Mr. Liang left with the lord, at the invitation of the second brother Ma, he opened up a large horse farm in Zhangjiachuan, as well as Mr. Liang's previous Lingshui horse farm, which was guarded by a certain tribe's sons, and there were horses that belonged to each of you, and you also knew about them. ”

"Three months ago, a group of black-clothed bandits with hundreds of people attacked Lao Tzu's tribe at night and burned Zhangjiachuan! Lao Tzu's sons and daughters were killed and wounded, and our grandfather's horses were killed and wounded. Speaking of this, Cheng Yi was still full of anger, stretched out his finger and said: "Subsequently, a certain family asked Second Brother Ma for help, and Second Brother called two hundred guards for the caravan," Saying that, Cheng Yi snorted his neck towards Ma Yu and said: "Captain Ma Duwei also deployed more than 100 people from Hanyang County to stop the defense, and stationed on the bank of the Lingshui River. It can be regarded as preserving a horse farm in Lingshui. ”

Pei Qian touched his forehead, he already understood what was going on, and said, "Those thieves...... Caught or not? What can come out of your mouth? ”

"No ......" Cheng Yi shook his head and said: "Those thieves are very tight, but they don't say it, the bloodline can't deceive people, they are all Han Qiang!" ”

"Monkey Hanqiang?!"

One stone stirs up a thousand waves, what the three words of Caohanqiang mean, everyone has grown up in Liangzhou for decades, and they all understand.

There are no less than hundreds of Qiang tribes in Liangzhou, but there is only one place, Caohan, where the Qiang people are not named after tribes, but by place names. This place is located in Longxi County, adjacent to Jincheng County, backed by the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with an average altitude of 2,500 meters, relying on natural danger as early as Duan Ying to discuss the Xiqiang era so that the Han army can not enter, it is only a radius of more than 100 miles, but there are several rivers in the woodland grassland, among which the Qiang people do not know how many, the whole Longxi only Di Dao, Zhangxian can be comparable.

Although the Han nominally belonged to the Han court, its de facto rulers were the Song family, which had been entrenched for decades long before the Duan Ying Pingqiang era.

The names of the two brothers, Song Jian and Song Yang, entered everyone's field of vision.

"The Song Clan?"

The first person to react was not Pei Qian, who was born in the gate, but the horse play who traveled all over Xiliang, and at this time, a trace of panic appeared on the face of the horse play who was not afraid of heaven and earth.

"If it's them, it's not going to be easy...... But we don't have any conflict with the Song family, could this be... Framed? ”

After Cheng Yi said this, he glanced at Ma Teng, and after getting approval, he knelt down and sat down.

Ma Teng, who was at the top, said: "If there is no accident, it should be them, second, you say." ”

"Ahem." Ma Zong coughed, although Ma Zong's status was the lowest among all the people present, everyone understood that Ma Zong was a role that should not be underestimated, and he said: "A few days ago, a certain person got news from the door that the Song brothers began to meddle in the horse business in Liangzhou. Ma Zong stretched out five fingers and said: "With a big deal, five hundred Liangzhou horses were escorted by the Song family's right-hand men and transported to Guanwai and Longguan. ”

Speaking of this, the corners of Ma Zong's mouth hooked up a disdainful smile, and said: "The Qiang horse from Longxi is now blocked at the pass and cannot be transported. The Central Plains is making trouble with the yellow scarf, the Son of Heaven has blocked the checkpoint, and no one's goods can get out...... Song brothers, erect ears! ”

Compared with Ma Zong's scruples, Ma Teng's face was solemn, Ma Play, Cheng Yin and the others were a little flustered, and Cheng Yi was angry but helpless.

Pei Qian said: "As far as I know, the Song clan has been accumulating prestige in Caohan for a long time, and the tribe that is attached to the Song clan within a radius of 100 miles has thousands of troops, I don't know what the two Ma families want?" ”

"How? Hey, Pei Gongzi asked a good question! Ma Zong clasped his hands together and said with a violent smile: "Eat it, if it is broken, Lao Tzu will let them all spit it out!" Let you gather here today is a certain family to say hello to you, more than 300 Xiliang horses in Longguan, the second master robbed it! ”