In the southeast of Zhangye County, a one-sided massacre in the wilderness is nearing its end.

The entire hard loess surface was dyed red, and the soles of feet and horses' hooves were constantly trampling past, and the dust particles were filled with the shadows of people and horses everywhere on the battlefield, some of them were falling, falling on the corpses of their comrades, and more corpses and wounded were stretched out in all directions, and the blood that flowed out of them gathered into viscous puddles.

The figure of the fighting and shouting came and went, a Qiang man with a weapon in his hand was crawling on the ground, crying frantically, the lower half of his body was soaked in red, and a long blood blanket was dragged out in the crawl, the two legs were bent and deformed, broken from the middle, Bai Sensen's broken bone pierced the flesh and blood exposed to the air, and the other foot was trampled by the horse's hooves, becoming bloody and blurred, and a few toes that could be vaguely seen hung down and hung on it and shook slightly with the movement.

In his creeping vision, his companion's feet stepped past him, and when he fought with a Han soldier, he gritted his teeth and turned around, desperately clutching the soil and crawling to avoid the fighting band. Behind him, the body of the fight fell to his side, and his blood-stained face stared at him with wide eyes.

"Ahh The Qiang man screamed and waved his arms to drive the other party away, but the sword light fell, and the dancing arms flew into the air—

The blade fell again, plunged into the back of the Qiang soldier, and crucified the man to the ground.

The vision rose to the sky, and there were very few Qiang people still resisting in this field, and the injured and undead were curled up on the ground and groaned in pain. Yin, most of the rest abandoned their weapons, squatted down and looked at the Han soldiers who walked by with knives from their sight, these people had already begun to clean up the battlefield, and after making up for the Qiang people who were not dead, someone came to receive the prisoners, a large number of Qiang prisoners were gathered, and a rope was used to bind several people, or even a dozen people, Xiahou Yuan sent people to count the number, and then sent more than 3,000 people to watch over.

-- More than 46,000 people surrendered.

The picture of the black pressure on a prisoner came into Xiahou Yuan's eyes, his eyes sank, the three armies were outside, the number of prisoners was more than double his main force, it was a very dangerous situation, even if he surrendered now, no one could guarantee that these prisoners would not suddenly make trouble when they were fighting with others, and on the other hand, more than 40,000 mouths needed to eat, which he also needed to consider carefully.

stared at a group of captives for a moment, then turned his gaze to Cao Chun: "Zihe, you take people to a hidden place and dig a big pit." ”

The latter pressed the hilt of the knife on the horseback, nodded and didn't say much, he has been in the army for a long time, from the grassland to the Central Plains, and has seen a lot of such scenes with Gongsun Zhi and his brother Cao Cao, not to mention that in such an environment, there is only one way to descend.

The signs of the movement of troops and horses have attracted the attention of many people.

Huang Zhong, who had already dismounted and rested, looked at the group of people who turned around and couldn't see the place where they couldn't see, and then looked at the captives over there, probably thinking of something, and hurriedly got on the horse and greeted Xiahou Yuan, who was issuing orders, and the deputy general Wei Yan next to him saw that his expression was wrong, and hurriedly followed, and before he could dissuade him, the former had already arched his hand: "The last general Huang Zhong has seen the general of the guard." ”

"General Huang is from Jingchu?" Xiahou Yuan sent the herald away, and looked at it with a tilt.

"Nanyang people."

Wei Yan also arched his hand: "The last general is Yiyang." ”

"Then you two don't command your own soldiers, what do you mean by coming to me?"

"Loyal to see the tiger and leopard cavalry commander Cao Chun go to a no-man'..... land" Huang Zhong's expression was solemn, and he looked at the prisoners who were tied up over there: "The three armies are on a campaign outside, although there are a few more prisoners, but the killing of prisoners is unknown, and the general of the guard army will be cautious." ”

"How can I not know such things?" Xiahou Yuan's eyes sank, and he said in a low voice: "Now that the Western Expedition has begun, this Liangzhou will be the only way for you and my army to return and carry heavy burdens in the future. Promise not to kill kindness? ”

While the three of them were talking, they rode close at a gallop: "General, Gongsun Dudu has led the army over." ”

After sending away the scouts, Xiahou Yuan said to the white-bearded veteran on the opposite side: "Since the governor is here, then I, the overseer, will retire, if the old general has anything to say, go and talk to the governor of Gongsun, don't be too late." He arched his hand, his tone smug and smug.

In the southwest, a big white wolf banner out of the forest, more than 3,000 horses on the field, the speed accelerated, towards this side, the original vigilant coalition cavalry, foot soldiers saw the flag, hung down the sword to get out of the way, rolled up smoke and dust and stepped on the roaring hooves of the horse, and then slowly stopped twenty zhang away, the figure of the wolf's mane armor lifted the cloak, turned off the horse's back, and strode over here.

"The last generals Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, and Xiahou Yuan have met the governor." The three figures hurriedly dismounted and bowed their hands to the comers.

A bloody human head fell to the ground and rolled at the feet of the three men.

"No need to be polite."

The tall figure waved his hand, and then Li Ke came over and unscrewed the water bag, Gongsun Zhi stretched out his hand to clean the blood stains, and looked at the three of them: "I see the three of you talking together from afar, can I listen?" ”

Huang Zhong looked at the other two, lowered his voice and said his previous opinion again, the generals have the same duties, but the temperament of people is very different, after speaking, he arched his hand: "Please also blame them." ”

"What is the blame?" Gongsun Zhi wiped his hands, walked over and gently pressed the other party's hand, "....... Who doesn't have an opinion? The old general is right to have an idea, but in this matter, I want to stand on the side of the general of the guard, if it is simply to pacify the Liangzhou Qiang Rebellion, after the death of Cheriji, it doesn't matter if these people are released, leave it to Liangzhou Assassin Shi to govern slowly. ”

He crossed the three of them with his hands on his shoulders, looked at the black captives over there, and his voice became cold: "It's a pity that the situation is different now, in the general direction, we are going to the Western Regions, and even more west, and there is no time to spend seven or eight years on the grassland to sinicize the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Wuhuan." ”

Gongsun Zhi turned around, strode back and turned over his horse: "...... Qiang people have been in turmoil for hundreds of years, not without roots, they first surrendered to the Huns, when Emperor Jing, they came to join the Han Dynasty, saying that they were willing to guard Longxi, when they arrived at Emperor Wu, they colluded with the Huns, and had to force Emperor Wu to order them to move west, Yuan Ding five years, these Qiang people formed a group, united with the Xiongnu more than 100,000 troops to live in the county...... Before and after to now, the number of times of chaos can't be counted on two hands, my Han people have taken them in and raised them for a long time, but what is raised? ”

"...... Shengmien's fight against Mi En is still less?" Gongsun Zhi pulled the reins, drove the horse's head and ran out, his voice high-pitched: "All the captives have been killed, remember to leave their heads, pull them over, and give them a reminder that the knife is always harder than the neck——"

The three of them watched the wolf king go to the battlefield, Xiahou Yuan also arched his hand and left, Huang Zhong looked at the captive and sighed, and said with a smile: "The old man understands the truth, it may be that he has come up in age, and he is a little sentimental." Wei Yan beside him didn't speak, he stood with him for a long time, and when the sun was in the west, a wave of Qiang captives were escorted by cavalry to the big pit dug behind the forest.

The remnants of the sunset shone down, and countless corpses were piled up in the pit, and the Qiang people who were pulled by the rope saw this scene, and trembled with fright, and some cried out and wanted to escape, but the waiting soldiers pulled the rope and dragged them over, and they knelt on the ground with a knife or pressed, or swords, and knelt on the ground, and the figure of the execution with a knife stepped forward, and the knife was raised, and the miserable cry stopped abruptly, and the heads of people rolled on the ground with different expressions.

Someone suddenly broke free of the rope, struggled to get up, stretched out his legs and ran backwards desperately: "I don't want to die, I want to live-"

But no one could understand.

Bumped into a sturdy general head-on, Cao Chun kicked him to the ground, pulled out the blade at his waist and walked over, trampling the Qiang soldiers who were still trying to struggle under his feet, and the moment the most poignant scream came out, he slashed down with a fierce swing of the knife-

"Race strife, if you don't die, I will die!"

The skull, with its mouth wide open, with its torn flesh and skin, tossed into the sky, reflected in the red sunset, and then set.

The red glow swept in like a tide.

A head fell heavily to the ground, tumbled down the gentle slope, stuck on a stone, facing the setting sun, this is a woman's face - Xiangda Minzhu.

Great Elm Valley.

The flames rolled up into the sky with thick smoke, obscuring the sky, and the tents and wooden houses were on fire, and occasionally the smell of burnt corpses came from the passing wind, and the Qiang people who had no time to run out of the grass huts and tents were still engulfed in flames on the ground, and the burning curls were coiled together.

The place that had twice become the most powerful tribe of the Qiang was now in the midst of a massacre, with a mixture of cries and screams, and the fire making the dusk even more bloody.

"In the past, maybe I could still let them go, but unfortunately when I encountered the Western Expedition, Liangzhou was the only way to pass through as a baggage, and I couldn't tolerate people from other tribes......"

Under the white-maned lion's helmet, the words slowly came out of Ma Chao's mouth, while gently wiping the blood stains on the blade of the sword, while watching the piles of Qiang people being driven by the cavalry into a valley on the side of the mountain wall, which was covered with dead branches and dry grass, among which there were many Qiang children, innocently holding their mother's hand and jumping in.

“.…… Moreover, a soldier is to obey orders. ”

The blade of the sword was inserted back into the scabbard, and the red white silk handkerchief was thrown to the ground, Ma Chao's face was handsome and masculine, but at this time, there was not much pity in his eyes, and he was even more fierce, and waved his hand violently: "Kill!" ”

Arrows of flame shot down from the top of the valley, and the light of the fire reflected in the mountain wall, and countless terrible screams rang out from inside, and soon more people died here.

…….

In the evening, it was dark, but it was raining lightly.

Several large pits filled with corpses were backfilled in the hands of the soldiers, and the sound of rain washing over the leaves seemed to put an end to the lives of these people.

Huang Zhong stood under the tree and watched the whole process, and couldn't help sighing, Wei Yan came over from behind: "The way of the world is like this, if you are a Qiang person, you and I can't afford to take the lives of our soldiers, let's go, the governor will gather in the big tent to discuss the matter of the western expedition, let's go over." ”

"Hmm."

The veteran glanced at it again and nodded, "Let's go." ”