The 36 countries of the Western Regions are said to be countries, but in fact, they are city-states near the trade routes, with more or less populations, including "big countries" with a population of 10,000 or 20,000 like Loulan, and "small countries" with a population of 1,000 like Xiaowan. Liu Xie wanted to conquer the Western Regions, firstly, to open up trade routes between the Han Dynasty and Central Asia and beyond, and secondly, to covet the rich mineral deposits in various parts of the Western Regions.

The population of the Western Regions is quite large, but that is the sum of the sum added together, and Liu Xie's idea is to simply break each one. Taking advantage of the fact that the thirty-six countries of the Western Regions are not united, they will be eliminated one by one. The location of the 36 countries in the Western Regions is actually mostly in Xinjiang in later generations, and the so-called 36 countries in the Western Regions do not only mean that there are only 36 countries in the Western Regions, these 36 are only an approximate number, in fact, in the era in which Liu Xie lived, the Western Regions at this time had been divided into more than 50 countries.

It is said that it is a country, but in fact it is not big, and if some countries are placed in the interior of the Han Dynasty, there are not even many people in a village. Previously, due to the rebellion of the Qiang people in Liangzhou, the connection between the Han Dynasty and the Western Regions was blocked, but now, Liu Xie intends to reopen the Western Regions and restore the Silk Road. However, this time was different from the previous ones, and the Han army did not bring wine and silk, but war and killing. Shun Zhechang! Death to the rebels! Whoever it is, they must crawl in front of the iron hooves of the Han army.

Jia Xu lived up to expectations and brought back good news for Liu Xie, Han Sui and Ma Teng accepted the "Zhao'an" of the imperial court, regardless of whether these two people sincerely surrendered to the imperial court, at least for a short time, the passage to the west of the imperial court was smooth. In particular, these two people have a good relationship with the Qiang people, and with the two of them coming forward, the Han army does not have to worry too much about the backyard fire when conquering the Western Regions.

However, the heart of defense is indispensable, especially after learning that Han Sui and Ma Teng were unwilling to accept the reorganization of the imperial court and firmly grasped the military power in their hands, Liu Xie immediately ordered Zhang Liao and Xu Huang to divide their troops and lead troops into Jiuquan and Zhangye counties, and preemptively control these two counties in their hands while Han and Ma had not yet reacted.

Since they are preparing to operate the Western Regions, Zhangye and Jiuquan are the bridgeheads of the imperial court to the Western Regions, and in order to prevent Han Sui and Ma Teng from suddenly turning their faces, Liu Xie also attaches great importance to the defense of these two counties. In addition to military support, the disintegration of the Qiang people and the Han and Ma people from the people's livelihood is also being carried out in an orderly manner.

Along the way, there were officials and soldiers escorting, and profit-seeking merchants naturally began to flock to the northwest, and the imperial court was also impartial in dealing with disputes between the Han and Qiang people. Since we want to assimilate the other party, we should first treat the other party as our own person, and we should be rewarded for our meritorious service and punished for our mistakes.

The Qiang people did not object to this attitude of the Han government, especially after the Han merchants had disputes with the Qiang people due to shoddy quality, the Han officials did not favor the Han people, but made a fair judgment based on the facts, and the Qiang people began to be willing to accept the jurisdiction of the Han government.

No matter what the population, there is a desire to hope for a good life. Fighting and killing is not a long-term solution, and only a very small number of people are willing to be thieves. And for these unrepentant people, the officers and soldiers of the Han Dynasty will go to them to "talk to their hearts". The imperial court said that it was going to conquer the Western Regions, but it did not take action for a long time, but instead managed the newly arrived Zhangye and Jiuquan with heart.

Ma Teng is okay, he is too guarded by his martial arts, and he keeps to himself, but Han Sui is a little restless. He has always wanted to be a pastor in Liangzhou, but the court didn't give it, and the iron buddy Ma Teng didn't support him in this matter. But he wanted to make evil secretly, and those Qiang people who had a good relationship with him were unwilling to work for him because of the benefits given by the imperial court.

What Han Sui can give to the Qiang people is nothing more than some money and grain, but what the imperial court gave is a stable future, and the Qiang people can still divide it clearly. Han Sui was anxious about this, but he was helpless for a while. I could only watch the Han army escorting the caravan through Jincheng to Zhangye and Jiuquan.

In fact, Han Sui also gained a lot during this time, and the taxes paid every time the caravan passed by went into Han Sui's pocket. It's just that as the old saying goes, people's hearts are not enough to swallow elephants, and for Han Sui, who wants to dominate Liangzhou, how much money he makes is not as important as the position of Liangzhou Mu.

I wanted to find fault with the court and turn my face, but I missed the opportunity, and at this time, turning my face was asking for my own death. Han Sui could only hold back until he became ill.

Knowing that the sworn brother was sick, Ma Teng naturally wanted to show his concern and sent his nephew Ma Dai to Jincheng with gifts to visit Han Sui. Seeing Ma Dai, Han Sui was a little disappointed, and originally hoped to take this opportunity to discuss with Ma Teng and persuade him to do something big with him, but he didn't expect Ma Teng to come, but just sent a nephew. This kind of big thing, how can you talk to such a kid who can't make up his mind.

"Bo Zhan, what message can your uncle ask you to bring?" Han Sui asked casually.

"Uh...... There is a message that my uncle asked me to bring to Uncle Han. Ma Dai hesitated for a moment and replied in a low voice.

"Oh, what did Shoucheng say?"

"Uh......"

Han Sui saw that Ma Dai was talking hesitantly, and knew that the message that Ma Teng wanted him to bring might not be very popular, so he smiled and said: "Bozhan but it doesn't hurt to speak, I don't blame you." ”

"Yes, the message my uncle asked me to bring is only four words."

"What four words?"

"Don't toss."

"Huh? What the? ”

"The message that my uncle asked me to bring to Uncle Han was the words 'stop tossing'."

“…… Bozhan is down to rest, and I will come back tomorrow, for I have a letter for you to pass on to your uncle. Han Sui suppressed the anger in his heart and said to Ma Dai.

Ma Dai hurriedly said goodbye, and as soon as he came out of the living room, he heard the sound of smashing utensils behind him, and at the same time vaguely heard Han Sui's scolding, "The erection is not enough and the plan is not enough!" ”

The next day, Ma Dai came to Han's mansion as promised, and saw Han Sui's expression as usual, as if he was not affected by his uncle's message yesterday, and couldn't help but feel a burst of admiration for Han Sui.

Han Sui also had no choice, when he first heard Ma Teng's message yesterday, Han Sui was shocked and angry, Ma Teng said this, which means that his mind has been seen through by Ma Teng. Even a martial artist like Ma Teng can see through his own careful thoughts, the current Liangzhou Mu, Jia Xu, who is called a poisoner today, has also seen through his own thoughts, and at this time, he is just waiting for himself to jump out and make trouble, and the court has an excuse to clean himself up.

The more Han Sui thought about it, the more scared he became, and as a result, he lost sleep. After thinking about it, Han Sui also had to admit that Ma Teng's reminder at this time was indeed the most suitable choice for him, to keep the soldiers and horses he had at hand, and to sell them at the price, the court could not deal with it at the moment, but once the flaws were revealed, he still had a chance to be ashamed.

Ma Dai left, and left Jincheng with a letter from Han Sui thanking Ma Teng for reminding him. After Ma Dai left, Han Sui also changed his previous decadent state, and began to exercise the power of the Jincheng County Guard, train soldiers to govern the people, and secretly accumulate strength.

Han Sui and Ma Teng refused to hand over their existing military power, and the imperial court did not turn against Han and Ma because of this. However, although the military power was not withdrawn, the imperial court also gave Han and Ma a controllable upper limit. For example, Ma Teng now has 30,000 iron horsemen in his hands, and the imperial court only gave Ma Teng an upper limit of 10,000 horses, which means that Ma Teng can only get 10,000 horses from the imperial court, and the remaining 20,000 people need to be paid by Ma Teng himself.

Ma Teng was reluctant to disband the redundant people, and felt sorry for his own pocket, but if he wanted to increase taxes, he could no longer say it alone, the imperial court gave preferential treatment to businessmen, unified the taxes collected by various places, and no one was allowed to increase their income for no reason, otherwise they would be targeted by the imperial court's imperial history platform.

Ma Teng didn't want to turn his face with the court, so he could only accept the system of the court. In order to feed the extra 20,000 horses, Ma Teng had to learn the imperial court's tuntian system, using some of the men and horses for farming, and the other part of the men and horses went to enter the Xiongnu territory to plunder the population and come back to increase the labor force for the tuntian.

After Liu Xie learned of Ma Teng's move, not only did he not object, but privately agreed with Ma Teng's approach. Why can we only let foreigners rob the Han people, and we should let these nomads know what it is like to be robbed. In order to encourage Ma Teng's activities, Liu Xie even asked the caravan to bring him a batch of armor and equipment to secretly support Ma Teng.

Ma Teng also became more dependent on the imperial court, he seemed to have found his own goal, when Han Sui was still worried about his future, Ma Teng had already taken his son Ma Chao into the Xiongnu, plundered the Huns and came back to farm for himself. The reason why Ma Dai was asked to visit Han Sui for him was because Ma Teng felt that it was more important to rob the Huns now than to visit Han Sui.

When the Huns were at their most beautiful, they were beaten by the Han Dynasty and fled in embarrassment and split into two parts, one part went west, and the other part expressed their submission to the Han Dynasty. Although they have recuperated over the years, the blood of the Huns is far inferior to that of their ancestors.

In the face of Ma Teng's plunder, the Xiongnu Shan Yu Huchuquan also led his troops to resist at first. But in the face of the cavalry composed of the Qiang and Han tribes under Ma Teng, the Huns really had no advantage. Coupled with the disparity in weapons, the Huns suffered successive defeats in front of Ma Teng's cavalry. For this reason, Hu Chuquan had to send the Right Xian King to Bei, and went to Chang'an to ask Liu Xie, the son of heaven, to call the shots.

It's just that Hu Chuquan doesn't know that today's Han Tianzi is different from the Han Tianzi in the past, this is a master who doesn't care about face and pays attention to practical benefits. Although later generations did not excessively publicize the Wuhu Rebellion in order to unite the word China, Liu Xie still had some impressions of this matter.

The Han people were killed from the first ethnic group to a minority, and this kind of painful historical lesson should be remembered by all Han people. And the Huns were also the first to raise a butcher's knife to the Han people in Wuhu Rebellion.

In Liu Xie's eyes, the Huns are unfed wolves, if it weren't for the fact that the imperial court doesn't have the energy to deal with these Huns, Liu Xie's first thing to clean up is these Huns. Hu Chuquan wants to ask Liu Xie to administer justice for him, but it is purely a mouse to be an escort for the cat, and he will die.

……

Liu Xie has been very busy lately. He originally wanted to lead the army to conquer the Western Regions, but as soon as he showed a hint of his tone, he was stopped by Xun Yu, Cai Yong and others who heard the news, followed by Zheng Xuan, Kong Rong and other great Confucians who had been teaching and educating people in Taixue. Liu Xie was almost drowned by the foaming star, so he had to give up his original idea and hand over the matter of the Western Expedition to his generals.

The Han army was reorganized for the second time, and the original seven armies became four, except for the one that stayed in Hanzhong and was responsible for monitoring the Xiongnu in the north, there were only two men and horses that could mobilize to conquer the west.

Take the fame right away! For martial artists, the best way to make contributions is to fight, the number of places in the expedition to the west is limited, and no one is willing to be unwilling, they have asked Liu Xie for help, and Liu Xie is in a dilemma. After a long period of consideration, the candidate for the expedition to the west was finally decided.

The four branches of the Han army, Xie Fu, Youyi, Han'an, and begging, Han'an was led by Huang Zhong and sat in Hanzhong; The Liberation Army was led by Xu Huang and guarded Feng Yi; The rest of the You Yi and Begging Army, of which the Begging Army is the first army that has been decided, the candidates are Dian Wei and Zhang Ren, and the You Yi Army, the main general is Zhang Liao, and as for the deputy general, no one expected the newcomer Tai Shici.

As for the safety of Chang'an, it is the responsibility of the Son of Heaven's army. The regular army in the imperial court was originally added to almost 100,000, but after the reorganization, the four main armies were 20,000 each, and the rest of the troops were all included in Liu Xie's Son of Heaven's army. Although the number of people in each class is not as large as that of the main army, whether it is the quality of soldiers or armor and equipment, the Son of Heaven's army is the top. Powerful generals such as Hao Zhao and Pang De were all incorporated into the Son of Heaven's pro-army this time.

When the personnel were arranged, some people were happy and some were disappointed, among which Zhang Liao was the most surprised person. He originally followed Wenhou Lu Bu. Lu Bu didn't take him with him when he left, Lu Bu's thoughts Zhang Liao understood, and he didn't complain about Lu Bu in his heart, but he didn't expect the Son of Heaven to reuse himself like this, originally he thought that he would serve as the deputy general of a certain army, but he didn't want the Son of Heaven to entrust him with a heavy responsibility, and among the two armies of the Western Expedition, he led an army alone.

Zhang Liao was working hard to collect information about the Western Regions in order to repay the trust of the Son of Heaven, while Liu Xie found Zhao Yun, Pang De, Hao Zhao and others who were unsuccessful this time.

"I let you stay not because I don't believe in your abilities, but because I have another responsibility for you." Liu Xie said to Zhao Yun and the others with a smile.

"I wonder what the lord wants me to do?" Zhao Yun asked on behalf of everyone.

"The imperial court's westward expedition is very important, and there is no room for a half-point difference. With Zhang Liao and Dian Wei's abilities, I don't worry about what they will lose in the Western Regions, but I'm worried that they will accidentally be plotted by cold arrows from behind. ”

“…… Is the lord worried about Han Sui? Pound asked with a frown.

"He's busy building up strength now, and he won't pose a threat to us anytime soon, I'm worried about the Qiang people."

“…… Is the lord talking about Cherrigi? Hao Zhao asked.

"Well, that's him. This man has a high reputation among the Qiang people, and his attitude towards us Han people does not seem to be friendly. Once he suddenly attacked behind the back of my army's westward expedition, I was very worried about the Han army that had already gone out to the Western Regions at that time. And once there is a change in the northwest, that Han Sui may also take the opportunity to jump out. ”

"Does the lord mean that he wants me to wait to spy on Cherrigi and protect the retreat of the Han army?"

"Well, Chang'an doesn't need all of you to stay, there is Xu Huang's Annoying Army in the north, Huang Zhong's Han'an Army in the south, and Tongguan and Wuguan in the east that need the attention of the imperial court, I am ready to hand over Tongguan to Hao Zhao, Wuguan to Gao Shun, with you two here, the two passes are foolproof."

Hearing the Son of Heaven mention himself, Gao Shun, who has never been very talkative, interjected and asked: "The lord is transferred to Wuguan, who is responsible for the training of recruits?" ”

"Peping doesn't have to worry, he has two old generals, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun, take over."

Hearing Liu Xie say this, Gao Shun stopped talking. Seeing this, Liu Xie continued: "As for Chang'an City, it is enough to have county soldiers to maintain law and order, and Zilong and Ling Ming, you have the heaviest burden, and the two of you must be stationed in Zhangye and Jiuquan respectively. You only have 3,000 men at hand, so when you take office, you can recruit 10,000 troops nearby, and I will inform Wenhe of this, and he will be responsible for the money and food needed. Your mission is to get your men and horses ready to deal with emergencies as quickly as possible. Can it be done? ”

"Zhao Yun (Pound) will serve his life." Zhao Yun and Pang De replied in unison.

After pacifying the generals under him, Liu Xie wanted to appease Xun Yu's civil officials again, although he had personally promised that he would not secretly leave Chang'an. It's just that Liu Xie's performance has always been bad before, so Xun Yu and others didn't fully believe Liu Xie's assurance, and there were a lot of tails behind Liu Xie's ass in the past few days, and Liu Xie was not good at driving these tails away.

Readers love to play yin! Xun Yu knew that there was a chance that Liu Xie would be driven away if he let others follow Liu Xie, so he specially brought Zhao Yu, Zhen Mi, and Bu Luan, three women who had a good relationship with Liu Xie, and asked them to follow Liu Xie. For these three women, Liu Xie couldn't scold or beat, so he could only scold Xun Yu in his heart.

The third daughter had been waiting for Liu Xie outside, and when she saw that Liu Xie was finished talking, she came in to discuss "trivial matters" with Liu. Liu Xie glanced at Zhao Yun, who had not gone far, and said to Zhao Yu in a low voice: "Xiaoyu, Zilong will go to Zhangye in a while, I am afraid that your brothers and sisters will not be able to see each other for a long time, why don't you go to accompany your brother?" ”

"I'm not going." Zhao Yu shook his head when he heard this.

"What? Did your brother and sister quarrel? Liu Xie asked in confusion when he heard this.

"No, it's the second brother who doesn't want me to disturb him now."

"Huh? What do you mean? ”

"It's so stupid, my second brother has a sweetheart, I'm going to find him now, wouldn't I be going to make a big candle? I'm not so blind. ”

“…… Xiaoyu, do you know who your brother's sweetheart is? ”

"Hee-hee, guess."

"Where can I guess?" Liu Xie rolled his eyes, got up and said, "It doesn't matter if you don't tell me, I'll just follow me to take a look." ”

"Hey~ Stop! I won't let you ruin my brother's good deeds. Hearing this, Zhao Yu hurriedly grabbed Liu Xie and said.