In the afterglow of spring, a messenger flew to the military formation outside the city of Ji with the word "horse" fluttering, and handed over a battle report to Ma Chao, a partial general who was riding a horse under the banner of the commander to supervise the battle. I saw this young Xiliang warlord, wearing a lion helmet and a beast belt, wearing silver armor and white robes, his face was like a crown of jade, his lips were like smearing Zhu, his eyes were like meteors, his tiger body was ape arms, and his belly was wolf's waist.

At this time, looking at the content of the war report, Ma Chao's handsome face revealed a trace of greed that was difficult to hide - the Son of Heaven named Cao Cao as the Duke of Wei, Cai Ji as the Duke of Qi, Sun Ce as the Duke of Wu, and Liu Bei as the Duke of Chu. In addition, he gave chariots and horses, clothes, clothes, Zhu Hu, Na Ma, Hu Ben 100 people, Jiao Yue, bows and arrows, and nine tin to show the merits of the kings and kings...... Whew! The big husband should be like this!

Thinking of this, Ma Chao raised his head and cast a gloomy gaze at the towering Jicheng city wall opposite. In his opinion, if it weren't for the Liangzhou Assassin Shi Weirui and his military advisor Yang Fu to obstruct him, there should be a place for him Ma Chao among the princes who were entitled. After all, even that little lady Cai Anzhen can be named the Marquis of Qi, why can't he be the "Marquis of Qin" because of Ma Mengqi.

In Ma Chao's imagination, his fief stretched from the four counties of Hexi in the west to the shore of Luoshui in the east, and the territory covered Sanfu, Hanzhong and even Yizhou. It's a pity that plump ideals are often accompanied by skinny realities. Suddenly, a loud bang interrupted Ma Chao's thoughts. Everyone hurriedly looked for a sound, and saw that a rushing car attacking the city gate under the city of Jicheng was smashed to pieces by the stones thrown from the city, and the armor soldiers hiding in the car were also crushed into a ball of flesh, which frightened the surrounding Ma Chao and fled.

It is said that this is the third rushing car damaged by Ma Chao in the past two months. It is true that Ma Chao himself has always been "conceited and powerful", but in the siege war, the horse kung fu he is proud of is completely useless. Not to mention Jicheng as the seat of Liangzhou Prefecture. Shouldering the heavy responsibility of defending the territory and protecting the frontier all year round, this fortress was originally built to deal with the conceited and powerful captives who came and went like the wind.

can't take Liangzhou Prefecture to govern Jicheng, and can't kill Wei Rui, the genuine Liangzhou assassin history. Ma Chao could not become the nominal principal of Liangzhou, and then unify the northwest. In fact, the situation in Liangzhou is far more complicated than in the Central Plains states. In addition to Ma Chao, Han Sui, Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Li Kan, Zhang Heng, Liang Xing, Cheng Yi, Ma Wan, and Yang Qiu, there are also many Hu tribes such as Agui, the king of Xingguo, and Yang Wan, the king of Baiqingdi, on the narrow and narrow territory of Liangzhou. is the thorn Shi Weirui behind him, and there is also the support of the four surnames of Tianshui. The so-called four surnames of Tianshui refer to the four most powerful families in Tianshui County: Yan, Jiang, Ren, and Zhao. Among them, the Yan family headed by Yan Wen, the Jiang family led by Jiang Xu, and the Zhao family led by Zhao Ang were all loyal to Wei Rui. Only the Ren family and Ma Chao secretly communicated with each other, but they did not dare to support Ma Chao on the bright side.

Of course, Ma Chao is not a fuel-efficient lamp, in addition to the territory and soldiers left by his father Ma Teng, small warlords such as Cheng Yi and Yang Qiu, and King Di such as Agui and Yang Wan are also looking forward to Ma Chao. Because Ma Chao not only has a fierce and heroic father. He himself is better than the blue. You must know that Xiliang is a world that respects strength, and a child of a family with a good background and superb martial arts is a natural wolf, and he can win many supporters almost effortlessly. However, Ma Chao was not willing to dominate his father's territory. He sneered at the official title given by Cao Cao in the name of the Son of Heaven. To put it bluntly, Ma Chao doesn't disdain to be the kind of loyal dog who eats other people's food and does things for others. So when the sixteen-character proposal of "Bu Du Dingding, returning the political son of heaven, dividing the princes, and using the feudal Ping Han" was transmitted to Liangzhou. Ma Chao's heart ignited the ambition of competing with all the princes in the world.

Saying that Ma Chaoqing is out of blue does not only mean that his martial arts and ambitions far surpass his father. It's that this young marshal Ma at least knows that you can't just rely on brute force to compete in the world, you also need to take advantage of the situation, and you also need to hold the name of righteousness. So taking advantage of the great opportunity when Cao Cao was trapped in Dangyang, Ma Chao decisively led his troops to knock on the pass and ask for a seal, wanting to take the opportunity to get a title to build momentum for the unification of Liangzhou. It's a pity that Ma Chao is not Sun Ce, and there are no resourceful people like Zhou Yu, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong, and Lu Su around him. On the one hand, he was keenly aware of the opportunity to rise, but on the other hand, he missed it because of his simple and crude methods. As a result, the ceremony of Xiangyang's division has come to an end, and Jicheng is still standing still on the road of Ma Chao's eastward advance.

By now, Ma Chao has more or less realized that it is not wise to continue to stay outside Jicheng and fight Wei Rui to the death. He needs a break now. It is necessary to consolidate the territory in Sanfu and Longyou, and of course it is not necessary to recruit more soldiers to gather more princes. In fact, in addition to Jicheng, Ma Chao has occupied many counties in Longyou in the past few months. It's more or less a bit of a military budget. It's just that he withdrew his troops from Jicheng in such a gloomy manner, so he couldn't explain to the servant army that followed him, and it didn't conform to Ma Chao's consistent style of not empty-handed. In addition, thinking that Cao Cao has been out of trouble and is about to return to the court, how to face Cao Jun's next revenge is also a problem that Ma Chao needs to consider.

Just as Ma Chao lowered his head and pondered, he suddenly saw another horse galloping in the northwest direction. As soon as the rider on horseback arrived in front of the battle, he turned over and dismounted, galloped all the way to Ma Chao and reported, "General Qiqi, Guanzhong Liu Xiongming is coming!" ”

It is said that Liu Xiongming was originally a medicine picker who lived under the mountain of the car, and he went in and out of the clouds and mist every day, never getting lost, and people said that he could spit out the clouds. When Li Dao and Guo Yan were in turmoil, many people went to join him, and over time they became a well-known and powerful man in Guanzhong. If it had been changed in the past, Chang Ma Chao would not have taken Liu Xiongming and other little heroes in his eyes at all, at most he would have sent a member of the school to defeat Liu Xiongming's department. But at the moment, Ma Chao was suffering from no steps, and when he heard that Liu Xiongming was taking the initiative to attack, the young warlord's eyes suddenly lit up, and he suddenly had a plan in his heart.

Seeing Ma Chao raise his hand and wave his spear, he shouted angrily, "The bandits who overturned the car dare to tease my tiger's whiskers, and this general will definitely call him to come and go this time!" ”

And just when Ma Chao in Liangzhou was thinking about how to withdraw his troops from Jicheng at the lowest cost, Pang Tong, who was far away in Yanmen County, Bingzhou, was facing the sporadic drizzle and was surrounded by soldiers to beat Ma Ziping under the south gate of Pingcheng. In other words, in less than a year, this important town has changed hands three times in succession, and the speed of change in the situation is really dizzying. However, compared to the previous two times. This time, there was neither a vigorous siege battle nor a conspiracy of intrigue.

It was originally from after Zhong Xuan led the troops south, and the state defense was empty. Yu Yan, the leader of the Xianbei tribe, took the opportunity to lead his troops with more than 5,000 horsemen to cross the Great Wall and invade Bingzhou, wreaking havoc on Shangjun and Xihe counties. The Xianbei people are good at riding and shooting, and the Yuyan Department is even more like the wind, and the extraordinary Wubao Department is invincible. In desperation, Liang Xi, who was the Taishou of Taiyuan at the time, had to close the defensive line, while clearing the wilderness, and on the other hand, transferring the Cao army stationed in Yanmen to Xihe to conquer the Yuyan Department. It's just that as a result, there is a defense vacuum in Yanmen. Inevitably, the Huns, Xianbei people, and Wuhuan people took advantage of the situation to enter the troubled Yanmen, and Liang Xi took the initiative to send an envoy to Gaoliucheng to ask for a meeting with Pang Tong, expressing his willingness to hand over Pingcheng to the Qi army. Pang Tong naturally would not let go of this opportunity to recover Pingcheng. As a result, the two sides tacitly completed the handover of Pingcheng's defense.

However, territory acquired without the use of force often leaves a large number of after-effects. After all, the original layer of interests has not been broken, and the influence of the enemy has not been liquidated. Just like Pang Tong, although he now took Pingcheng without a single soldier. But the hearts of the people in Pingcheng are not on the side of the Qi army. Not to mention the many "hidden piles" that Cao Jun planted in the city before leaving, Deng Zhan's assassination of Wang Ling on the street alone has already made Pang Tong criticized in Bingzhou. It is true that this matter originated from Wang Ling's betrayal, but Wang Ling is Situ Wang Yun's nephew after all. And the Taiyuan royal family where he is located is a famous family in the state. Under the same spirit, the scholars of the annexed states adopted a hostile attitude towards Pang Tong. What's more, before the Qi army took over Pingcheng, rumors had already spread in the city that Pang Tong wanted to liquidate the rebellious and bloody Pingcheng.

Of course, Pang Tong would not rashly search for Cao Junxi or liquidate the pro-Cao people in the city during such a sensitive period, so long before entering the city, he ordered the whole army to adhere to military discipline after entering the city, strictly prohibiting disturbing the people, and sent cavalry to appease the envoys to read the notices of peace in public in the streets and alleys of Pingcheng. Although this move was to appease the unrest of the people in the city. But it can't relieve some people's jealousy and dissatisfaction with Pang Tong.

It's not. At this moment, under the gloomy sky like water, except for a cadre of chief guards and small officials leading more than a hundred and ten Dousheng small people to stand on both sides of the long street to welcome Pang Tong into the city, the big families in the city have all taken a posture of avoiding this young Youzhou don't drive. In the face of the silent protest from the family, Pang Tong himself seemed quite calm. In his view, the local clans are certainly assistants and foils to assist the government in ruling the people, but from another point of view, these forces are also moths that eat at the foundation of the rule. Allowing the local families to grow bigger will only damage the foundation that the lord has worked so hard to create, and then repeat the mistakes of the decline of the Han Dynasty.

Therefore, although Pang Tong's face was silent at this time, he was secretly planning in his heart how to attack the family and subdue the people. However, Pang Tong only clarified his thoughts, and at that end, he saw a junior colonel stumbling in front of him and reported breathlessly, "Huh...... Don't drive. Bow... Koji shogun returns to the city too! ”

The news from the school school immediately made the scene explode. You must know that since last year, after the Koji Yan led the troops to leave Pingcheng to pursue Yuan Tan, Bu Dugen and others, the Koji Yan Department has lost contact with the Qi army camp. During this period, Cai Ji and Pang Tong also sent soldiers and horses to find the Koji Performance Department. But Koji Yan and his part of the song seemed to disappear out of thin air, and there was no news like that.

At this moment, when he heard that Koji was returning to the city, Pang Tong was stunned at first, and then turned his horse with a gloomy face, and led a group of civil and military officers to the city gate. Sure enough, I saw a cavalry in the northwest with the word "Cai" coming towards Pingcheng, and the first ironclad general was the Koji Yan who had not met for a long time.

It turned out that the three thieves of Yuan Tan, Guo Tu, and Budugen were pursued that day, and followed the Xianbei tribes all the way to Mobei. In the middle of the journey, Koji Yan also sent troops back to Yanmen to deliver the message, but at that time, Yanmen had already changed hands to Cao's army, and the messenger and letter naturally failed to reach the Qi army camp. How did he know that the head of the city had changed the Dawang Banner shortly after he left Pingcheng, and he only thought that the messenger with the complex terrain of the Mobei grassland encountered an accident in the middle of the road, and did not take the loss of contact to heart, but continued to lead his subordinates to track the root of the step.

Fortunately, the root of Budu is migrating in the direction of Liangzhou, and Koji Yan has a little impression of that area. After months of long-distance tracking, Koji Yan finally found Budugen's nest in the depths of Mobei at the end of the eighth year of Jian'an, and attacked the Xianbei people's camp that night. Bu Dugen obviously didn't expect that Koji Yan would track him all the way to Mobei's lair, and was caught off guard by the Qi army that galloped in. The entire camp was also burned to the ground by Koji's fire. As for the treasures that Budugen had plundered before, they were all confiscated.

By the time the fully loaded koji performance returned to Yanmen, the time seemed to have reached February of the first year of Yankang. Cao Jun happened to withdraw from Yanmen County at this juncture. So although Koji Yan felt that the situation was a little strange along the way, he didn't expect that Pingcheng had changed hands several times in the months since he left.

At this moment, Koji Yan, who was still in the dark, saw Pang Tong personally leading the civil and military forces to greet him under the city gate, so he immediately turned over and dismounted, shook off the floating dust on his body, took out the head of Budugen that had been marinated into bacon from the quiver, and greeted Pang Tong as if offering a treasure, "Shiyuan, don't come unharmed!" ”

How did Pang Tong have a straight face, raised his hand and pointed at Koji, and ordered sharply, "Someone!" Take it down! ”

With Pang Tong's order, more than a dozen armor soldiers immediately rushed forward and pressed the unprepared koji Yan to the ground. The soldiers who followed behind were all shocked when they saw this and wanted to step forward to savior the Lord, but they were blocked by a team of cavalry galloping out of the city. At this time, the reliant Yan Yan struggled and shouted angrily at Pang Tong, "Pang Shiyuan! Thou art mad! ”

Pang Tong scolded indifferently, "Koji Yanru can be guilty!" ”

"Guilty?" Koji Yan was stunned at first, and then scolded like a frenzy, "Lao Tzu knows a fart crime!" Lao Tzu traveled thousands of miles to take down the head of the step, what a crime! ”

Koji's own soldiers also shouted, "Yes! The rest of the people followed General Koji to destroy the Xianbei lair, and the ground was the head of the Budu root! ”

Pang Tong glanced at the head wearing gold earrings on the ground, and his originally stiff face finally eased a little. I heard him follow and asked, "Where are the two thieves Yuan Tan and Guo Tu?" ”

Hearing Pang Tong mention Yuan Tan and Guo Tu, a depressed expression appeared on Ko Yan's face. It turned out that after Koji Yan destroyed Budugen's lair, he did not find Yuan Tan and Guo Tu. In the end, I learned from the captives that as early as outside the Yanmen Pass, Yuan Tan and Guo Tu had said goodbye, and Budugen did not know where to go. So in the face of Pang Tong's questioning, Lu Yan had to mumble stupidly, "These two thieves are not in the Xianbei camp." ”

Pang Tong believed that Koji Yan was not lying, and he also knew that Koji Yan and his men had endured hardships over the past few months. So he asked angrily, "Wu Guang, do you know that since you left, Zhong Xuan and Wang Lingli Yingwai have jointly captured Pingcheng?" ”

Koji, who was still struggling before, was stunned when he heard this. Seeing this, Pang Tong couldn't help but sigh faintly and said, "Come on, it is also a great achievement for you to destroy the Xianbei thief camp." The matter of reward and punishment is decided by the Lord. ”

After speaking, Pang Tong waved his hand and signaled his subordinates to let go of Koji. Koji Yan, who had regained his freedom, jumped up from the ground with a bang, clenched his hands into fists, and roared loudly with red eyes, "Where is Wang Ling!" What's the trick! I want to break it into pieces! ”

Facing the koji actor who was clamoring for revenge, Pang Tong looked up at the gray sky and said in a deep voice, "Wang Ling has been ambushed. As for the rest of the first rats...... The spring thunder began to move, and the stinging insects fled in shock. ”

As if to confirm Pang Tong's prophecy, at this moment, the sound of rolling thunder faintly came from the distant sky. (To be continued......)