In the middle of March, after the continuous spring rains, the muddy soil sprouted, and in the next second, the horse's paw embedded with iron hooves stepped down, and several horsemen on horseback stood on the hill.

In the distance, startled dust covered the mountainside.

The knight led by the hill straddled the sword and reined in the horse, dressed in pitch-black beast-faced iron armor, with a circle of white plush, and the scabbard on his waist inlaid with seven stars, he swept the eyes of the team moving forward on the winding mountain road, and the whole person showed a majestic and solemn look, and occasionally news came to him, presented it to him, made some modifications, supplemented orders, and sent the scouts away.

Then he looked up at the sky: "The news just came that the Qiang chieftain Cheriji gathered 60,000 Qiang soldiers, and the soldiers vaguely pointed to the two mountain cities of Lingju and Yunjie, and his thoughts probably couldn't be hidden, so he ordered the team in front to speed up and pass through this ravine as soon as possible." ”

"Gongsun Dudu, then shall we directly fight head-on, or will we wait?"

Standing behind the leader were Ma Chao and Dian Wei, among whom Ma Chao's voice was a little excited, he should have been the main general, but in the official position, and when he was a teenager, he admired Gongsun Zhi, so he gave up the position of the main general this time, probably under the pretext of observing and commanding the cavalry to fight.

Ahead, Gongsun Zhi withdrew his gaze from Tianyun, and did not give a direct answer, just watched the continuous army pass like a long dragon in the sight, and after a while, he slowly spoke: "The Qiang people have been in turmoil for a hundred years, and they will all be cleaned up by taking advantage of this opportunity. ”

"My lord is right." The giant man in the back nodded, "When they gather, it's convenient to kill them all." ”

Ma Chao frowned, "The Qiang people have the advantage of soldiers and horses, and their temperament is fierce and aggressive, if we get the armor and weapons of the Great Qin people secretly provided by the governor, I am afraid that if we really want to fight, we will lose a lot." ”

"Huh...... Meng Qi thought too highly of them. Gongsun Zhi glanced back at the impatient young man and laughed: "Back then, Duan Xi killed the Dongqiang exterminating clan with his own strength, and the other party was more than 100,000 Qiang soldiers at that time. ”

His voice was not high, and his smile faded away when he said it, only with a little indifference, "What's more, we don't need to go up to deal with them, otherwise wouldn't it be useless for me to try my best to lead out of this game?" As long as these Qiang people take the armor and weapons of the Great Qin people, they will die. ”

"..... the soldiers and horses of the states that were brought by the general trend had to bring these people to sacrifice the flag, and the families who had not yet received the benefits would naturally not come here, they would urge the army to continue to move westward, after all, once people open the floodgates of greed, it will be difficult to close them again, and if they don't get the benefits they want, they will definitely not give up, and revenge is their best excuse, and it is also a good time for us to wait for the Han soldiers to expand their territory, at this time, no one will hold back, and if it is delayed, it will be the common enemy of the world."

Gongsun Zhi looked at Ma Chao coldly, and drew a triangle in the air with his fingers, "This is the 'potential' often mentioned by the strategists, the army, the family, and the officials have formed a pattern like a mountain, and the mountain is pressed over, and under the general trend, even if there is the power of the overlord, it is difficult to resist." ”

"It's hard to think of this ............" Ma Chao naturally knows how to write and read classics, but for such a truth, it sounds understandable now, but on weekdays, if there is no guidance, he will not think in this direction at all, and he was still quite surprised when he heard it suddenly, "Gongsun Dudu, then I can't do anything?" Just watching from the sidelines? ”

"Ma Chao listens to orders-"

As soon as his words fell, Gongsun Zhi's voice suddenly burst out, and his cloak was raised with a bang, and he swept over the horse's head: "The Qiang people rebelled, and ordered Ma Chao, the captain of the Qiang school, to lead the army to steal the Great Elm Valley, no matter how old or young, leave no one behind, and put an end to the Qiang trouble!" ”

"Order!"

Ma Chao excitedly arched his hand to take the military order, turned around and ran down on horseback, and his voice was also ringing: "Bozhan, call my second brother and third brother together, and follow me to Jincheng County." ”

The high-pitched voice gradually faded away, the wind blew between the ravines, and the leaves fluttered softly, Gongsun stopped looking at the swaying greenery all over the mountains, and his heart had never been shaken because of such an order.

"After exterminating the Qiang people, tell everyone to cut off all the heads for me, load them on the cart, and send people to the Di people, I don't have time to go into Shu to kill them now, so I will hide in the mountains and don't come out——"

Gongsun Zhi turned his head and summoned a herald to ask him to write down this sentence, and after a while, he pulled the reins: "Go, it's time for the big drama to begin." ”

The spring rain has passed, and the sky is full of clouds.

On March 20, in addition to the Ma family and Gongsun Zhi, the army sent to the northwest also came from Chang'an, led by Zhang Ren and Yan Yan, two generals in Shuzhong, and the Yizhou army, they passed through the mouth of Fanxu along Yongxian County, and then went straight north to Yuyin, approaching Zhangye only more than 300 miles away, and even arrived two days earlier than Gongsun Zhi, after all, the mountain road here is slightly easier to walk than Shu Road.

Zhang Ren and Yan Yan, who led the troops, were both cautious people, considering that they had not fought with the Great Qin people, and the other party's tactics and weapons were very unfamiliar, and after marching to two hundred and seventy miles, they slowed down, after all, they had entered the hinterland of Xiliang, among the heavy mountains, and the Qiang people were also huge, so they had to march carefully.

However, even if he was careful, on the afternoon of the 22nd, he met with a strange army and horses, and when the scout in front came to report, Yan Yan immediately put his army in a defensive formation, so as not to be ambushed by a possible ambush, Zhang Ren led a light cavalry to wander the flank, ready to lead the army to approach step by step, and finally the other party also appeared in their field of vision in a dignified manner, and the terrain here is also a rare flat area, seeing the tight phalanx formed by the other party, as well as large shields, spears, strange armor, Zhang Ren confirmed with certainty that the current soldiers and horses are the so-called Great Qin people.

"Send them for a while, try them first-"

Zhang Ren, as a few generals in Shu, is also engaged in under Liu Zhang, and the soldiers and horses led by him are also elite, this time he went north of Sichuan to Liangzhou, and he also had the idea of showing the courage and fearlessness of the men in Shu in front of the world's heroes, and opposite them was a deep-eyed and black-haired Daqin army, one by one, full of energy, swords and shields roared, and then the array of thousands of people walked out of the formation, and tentatively pushed over.

On the other side, the Great Qin army was not all the original craftsmen, many of them were auxiliary soldiers who were the main force under the command of Fritensis at that time, but they were sent around as craftsmen by the wolf king over the years to add bricks and tiles, build camps, and pontoon bridges...... And so on, but they are no strangers to fighting, and now that they have been ordered to come, they are not really fighting.

Send the same soldiers as the opposite, the two sides add up to only about 2,000 people, after approaching the face, blowing the trumpet, the array contact, and colliding, the soldiers sent by Marcus are mainly defensive, and the Shu soldiers on Zhang Ren's side are also holding the idea of finding out, neither side has launched a substantial crazy fight, quite orderly under the order of their respective leaders entangled a few rounds, began to slowly retreat.

After Zhang Ren probably saw the movement of the Great Qin people's formation and the way of arraying, he tried to find the weakness of breaking the formation, and after he "fought again, don't be conservative, tear apart their formation....." Before the words were finished, the enemy army in front was still retreating, and then the formation was also following the strange retreat to the rear.

"What's going on?"

Yan Yan, who commanded the foot soldiers and archers, rode to the front with a frown, and reminded Zhang Ren, who was also frowning and watching, "This Great Qin people are a little weird, they can break Wuwei and Zhangye in a row, the main general should not be a reckless person, beware of deception." ”

"Well, it's a bit weird!"

At this time, the 3,000-strong army of Great Qin in front of them was about to withdraw from their field of vision, and Zhang Ren still couldn't help but say: "If the Great Qin people are all holding big shields and wielding this kind of spear, even if they can win a frontal attack, they will also kill and kill many soldiers." ”

Soon after the words fell, a fast horse came to this side panting in the rear, and the scout jumped on his horse and knelt down and bowed his hand: "General Zhang, General Yan, the Western Expeditionary Army has arrived in Chang'an!" ”

"Haha!" Zhang Yiyi pressed his palm on Yan Yan's shoulder beside him, and laughed: "It's not too late!" Immediately, he got on his horse and waved his hand: "Order the scouts, follow closely with that Great Qin army and horses, find their main force, and eat them together with the generals when the time comes——"

He gave the order, and Yan Yan also smiled and bowed his hand, probably understanding the meaning, and while sending scouts, he gathered his formation and marched slowly to prevent being ambushed.

Time has passed on the morning of the second day of the fourth month, the weather is sunny, the spring rain season has passed, the sun is looking for the mountains, the forest from time to time there is a click of broken branches, Cheriji stands on a cliff at the foot of the mountain, looking at the city wall of Zhangye, a messenger from his tribe drove the cattle and sheep into there, and soon, more Qiang warriors dragged simple chariots and pack horses into the receiving good things in exchange -

Cheriji retracted his gaze, his eyes were calm and serious, but the fingers on the body of the tree trembled slightly and turned white, and he could see the excitement of the future Qiang king, he recruited all Qiang tribes in the mountains and wilderness, and gathered a huge force, as long as he got this iron and armor comparable to the Han Dynasty, then the entire northwest would be his...... Including those warm cities.

"Sister Le, when you are frying, when Khotan, when you are fed, sister in prison, sister Yan....... let them wait at the foot of the mountain, and we will burn the warriors to take the things first." He is burly and has a rebellious temperament, but at this time, when he waved his hand and drank violently, there was a faint momentum of those generals of the Han Dynasty.

"I don't know, what is the emperor like?"

He thought a little further ahead.