At their request, the Ministry of Intelligence conducted an in-depth and thorough understanding and infiltration of these horse thieves, and even sent people to break into their interior, only to make a startling discovery.

There were about 3,000 horse thieves, and their composition was very complex, including Kangju, Khorezm, Sogdians, Dawan, Kushan, Daxia, and even Persians, but the most important thing was that there were more than 1,000 Han Chinese.

However, these Han people have lived in this area for many years, and their language, dress, and even their beards are the same as those of the locals.

The most important information is not these, but the leader of this gang of horse thieves turned out to be Han Sui, who had been missing for many years.

This old thief, although he is nearly sixty years old, is very strong, and he can still ride a horse into battle and lead the team to rob.

As soon as he heard Han Sui's name, Ma Chao's eyes immediately turned red, and Pang De's breathing also increased.

After getting along with them for a few years, Sima Yi also knows a lot about the past history and understands their mentality.

He comforted the two of them, "General Ling Ming, General Meng Qi, don't worry, since you know where he is, he won't be able to run away this time, let's have a good discussion, how to catch this old thief and avenge the old General Shoucheng!" ”

Ma Chao heard Sima Yi say this, and did not object to his revenge, and was grateful, so he was willing to listen to Sima Yi's opinion.

After a few years of contact, he also admires himself, a student who also graduated with full honors.

The three of them carefully discussed the countermeasures, but in the end, they did not forget to send a copy of their battle plan to Fazheng Feige in Shule City.

A dozen days later, a large caravan from Dahan arrived at Guishan City, the capital of Dawan, from Shule.

The caravan consisted of hundreds of wagons and camels, laden with silk and tea.

The caravan stayed in Guishan City for a few days, and first conducted some trade with the local big merchants, exchanging a lot of rare materials.

Then he bought dozens of camels in Guishan City, carried the exchanged goods, and continued on the road to Kangju.

The caravan itself consisted of nearly a thousand men and coachmen, as well as a convoy of three hundred men.

The three hundred fierce mercenary guards were all riding horses from the Western Regions, and they all looked like veterans who had killed people on the battlefield and the like.

After the caravan hit the road, there were some suspicious herdsmen and homeless people in front of and on the left and right.

However, the caravan relied on its own strength and did not pay any attention to it.

When it was closer, naturally there were guards who stepped forward to drive it away, and those who talked nonsense directly went down with a whip.

The Han garrison of Guishan City obviously attached great importance to this caravan, and of course, it was also possible that they had received benefits and sent a cavalry of 500 people to escort them all the way.

The cavalry escorted the caravan twenty miles from the Kangju border before turning back to the city.

Ahead all the way to the border of Kangju, there is a plain of a flat river, only a few sparse woods, and the remains of a deserted temple.

Originally, both Dawan and Kangju countries believed in Zoroastrianism, or Zoroastrianism.

Later, after they were conquered by the Kushan Empire, they converted to Buddhism for a while.

Now that it has been decades since the Kushan Empire ruled, it has long since returned to Zoroastrianism, and the Buddhist temples have naturally been abandoned.

Out of caution, the leader of the convoy sent several men to inspect the woods and temples, which had recently heard of horse thieves.

Before the guards could approach the woods and the temple, several arrows were fired from these two places, and two of the guards were wounded by the arrows and fled back to the caravan.

Immediately afterwards, a large group of cavalry rushed out of the woods and the temple, more than 2,000 people, dressed in disheveled clothes, shouting and screaming, some with black scarves on their faces, and some without cover.

"Horse thief, horse thief is coming, get ready!" The leader of the guard shouted loudly.

The caravan men and coachmen quickly formed a circle around the hundred wagons, protecting the crowd and the camels in the circle.

Three hundred guards quickly formed a phalanx next to the circle.

To the surprise of the horse thieves, whether it was the men of the convoy and the coachmen, or the phalanx of these guards, they all moved quickly, moved accurately, and looked well-trained.

At this time, a masked man with a white beard in the ranks of horse thieves made a gesture to stop many of his accomplices, who were already rushing forward.

He even shouted in Chinese: "Be careful, these people are well-trained, not like ordinary merchants, but more like the army of the Han Dynasty!" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, one of the caravans rode out of the group on a white horse and stepped forward a few feet.

The man on the horse, although he was dressed in the costume of a caravan man, could not hide his outstanding temperament, and his murderous aura was overflowing.

"Old thief Han Sui, your vision is quite poisonous! But today you can't fly with wings, your grandfather Ma Chao is here, and my father's life is here! ”

Han Sui was taken aback, he never expected that he would hide in the Kushan Empire, which was thousands of miles away, and he would be able to meet Ma Chao.

Although the two of them have never met, Ma Chao's reputation in the Western Regions is very great, far more than his father, and Han Sui has already heard of it.

He also knew that Ma Chao had been chasing him all along, wanting to avenge Ma Teng, so he ran so far in one go and hid in Central Asia.

In this three-way realm, he skillfully operated his old profession, became a horse thief, and soon gathered a large number of outlaws from all countries and races.

He even established relationships with the high-ranking and bigwigs of the Kushan Empire through certain channels and methods, and became their agents in this border area.

A large part of the harvest from doing some shady deeds and robbing business trips for them was also given to these bigwigs, in exchange for the protection of the Kushan Empire's military.

This Ma Chao is really haunted, since he knows that this is a trap, how can he drill it?

"Withdraw! Evacuate! ambushed, withdraw to Maracanda! ”

Maracanda was the capital of the Sogdian province of the Kushan Empire and the home of the Han Sui gang.

As long as you return to Maracanda, you will naturally have the army of the Kushan Empire to protect you.

The horse thieves bypassed the sides of the convoy and fled to the border between Kangju and Kushan.

The location of their robbery was very particular, and it happened to be the three-regardless zone at the junction of the three countries, so it was very convenient to escape.

However, just as the horse thieves fled in circles, the caravan guards were the first to charge, led by Ma Dai.

His eyes were already red, "Old thief Han Sui, leave your dog's head, where to run?" ”

All the crossbows appeared in the hands of the guards, and a wave of crossbow arrows covered the past, and dozens of horse thieves fell off their horses.

The men and coachmen of the caravan also took out their hidden weapons, and they were also disguised by the officers and soldiers of the central government.

They mounted their horses on horse-drawn carts and became cavalrymen.

However, most of these war horses are Hexi military horses, so they can be used to pretend to be pack horses, you can't get a bunch of Dawanliang horse-drawn carriages!