There was a knock at the door, and the attacker came, laboriously carrying a large jar of hot porridge.

Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was rushing to drink the fragrant hot porridge, Liu Mang asked in a low voice, "Have you eaten the glutinous cake?" ”

The assailant nodded slightly.

"Have you eaten it all?"

"I didn't want to ......"

……

Liu Mang and others discussed for a night.

Although it is only a few dozen military horses, with Liu Mang's existing financial resources, it is not a problem to spend money to buy them, but it is really not easy to buy good military horses.

During this time, taking advantage of Man Gui's relationship in Xianbei, he also purchased more than a dozen military horses, but they were expensive and not high-grade military horses.

Youzhou, although it is one of the horse grazing lands of the Han Dynasty, there are very few military horses grazing by the government.

In the Han Dynasty, after 400 years, Ma Zheng went through several ups and downs, and by the end of the Han Dynasty, most of the military horses were fed by local heroes.

As an important strategic resource, most of the military horses are controlled by the warlords, and the number of military horses that really fall to the central and local governments is extremely limited.

Although Liu Mang has his own team, his strength is too small and weak, and no local powerful family takes him seriously, so naturally he will not provide him with military horses.

It is precisely because of the importance and rarity of military horses that Liu Mang made up his mind to win these military horses at the expense of Gongsun Zhan.

Liu Mang wants to fight for this batch of military horses, and there is another reason, he wants to use this matter to announce to the world: Three Kingdoms, I am here!

The Three Kingdoms are in turmoil, and the heroes are vying for hegemony.

Now that we have devoted ourselves to this era, we can only move forward. And there is only one goal, defeat all opponents!

Battles and clashes, sooner or later, are inevitable.

In the past few months, the reason why he was able to live in Youzhou was because of the heroes who crusaded against Dong Zhuo.

Sooner or later, the Allies will fall apart, and the world will eventually be in chaos. Youzhou naturally won't be peaceful forever, Gongsun Zhan doesn't even pay attention to Liu Yu, the state pastor, and sooner or later he will do something to the newly rising Liu Mang.

There is no room for two tigers in one mountain, and Liu Mang is the one with a smaller head. Hard fighting, not sure, but can't be convinced.

Although Liu Mang still can't fully understand the struggle for hegemony in the world and the competition for the Central Plains, he understands one thing: the relationship between him and Gongsun Chan is like two groups of forces on the street, each of whom wants to dominate the entire street.

The strength of his own side is insufficient, and Liu Mang naturally hopes to win time and space for peaceful development through negotiations.

But he knows better that in this case, the side that gives in first has only one result, and that is to lose the possibility of mixing.

Negotiation is a wise choice, but only if the other party sees that you are tough. In this way, we will be able to gain more bargaining chips for future negotiations.

And the issue of military horses is one of Liu Mang's means to show toughness. Liu Mang just wanted to borrow the military horse and told Gongsun Zhan: Youzhou, what you said doesn't count!

……

After carefully scrutinizing every detail, it was dawn and the team was about to assemble.

Liu Mang hurried back to his residence, and his own soldiers helped Liu Mang put on his armor.

"Is the young master going to war?" The assailant asked timidly, carefully observing every detail of the leather armor being tied up by his own soldiers.

Liu Mang smiled lightly: "My task is to fight the bad guys, don't worry." ”

"Young master, be careful."

"Don't worry." Liu Mang finished dressing, and before going out, he pointed to the remaining glutinous cake, "If you don't finish eating, I'll be distracted." ”

Seeing Liu Mang's back, he twisted up the glutinous cake and stuffed it into his mouth one by one......

……

As soon as the military horses arrived in the military capital Mayuan, Man Gui brought people over.

There is a transfer order signed by Liu Yu, the governor of the state, to receive this batch of military horses, which is justifiable.

Cao Peng, the governor of the prefecture, received the benefits and secretly helped to coordinate.

Ma Cheng, who is in charge of the military capital Ma Yuan, has already opened up the relationship, so naturally there will be no trouble.

According to the convention, when military horses from other places arrive in the horse garden, they need to go through several links such as registration, selection, and epidemic prevention, and then they must be shepherded for a period of time, so that the military horses are familiar with the local environment and forage, and will be distributed downward when the military horses are fully adapted.

In the horse garden, it is inevitable that the night will be long and dreamy, and the order that Man Gui received is to go through various procedures as soon as possible, immediately drive the military horse to the upper valley, return to his own territory, and then slowly shepherd and adapt to the environment.

Gongsun Chan, known as the White Horse General, often dealt with the military capital Ma Yuan, and naturally cultivated a lot of relationships here. Seeing that Man Gui and others were not Gongsun Zhan's subordinates, these soldiers were reluctant to hand over the military horses. It's just that Man Gui and the others have complete procedures, and Ma Cheng has opened the door of convenience, and the servants who are close to Gongsun Zan can't stop it.

After completing all the formalities, it was almost dark.

was supposed to stay overnight, but Man Gui didn't dare to delay for half a minute and immediately went on the road.

Driving the horse team to walk at night is contrary to common sense and can easily injure the military horses.

But Man Gui couldn't take care of it much, and the young master Liu Mang had an order that he must bring the military horses to the territory of Shanggu as soon as possible. The teams that responded were all deployed at the junction of Shanggu County and Gwangyang County, and it was safe to get there.

Liu Mang is the governor of Shanggu County, and his soldiers and horses are also subordinate to Shanggu County.

Guangyang and Shanggu, although they both belong to Youzhou, are two counties. According to the relevant laws and regulations, soldiers and horses are strictly forbidden to cross the border without the instructions of their superiors. Although in this era, various laws and decrees are no longer very binding, if they are violated, they will be untrue. If it is investigated in the future, it will be regarded as a crime.

Liu Mang has already borne several crimes. But now, after all, Liu Mang is an official of the imperial court and is in charge of more than half of the county. If the pretext of cross-border use of troops is lost, there will be one more negative factor when negotiating with Gongsun Chan in the future.

The deployment of the team in the upper valley can avoid a lot of trouble.

……

There are many inconveniences in driving horses in the dark.

Fortunately, most of the brothers brought by Mangui were brothers who had taken refuge in Xianbei, and they were all good at riding, so it would not be too much of a problem to come in the dark.

The military capital is in the north of Gwangyang County, very close to Sanggu County. However, between the two counties, there is a military capital mountain.

It was impossible to drive the horse team over the mountains late at night, so Man Gui and the others could only choose to go south, bypassing Jundu Mountain, and returning to Shanggu County. It's just that in this way, the distance that was originally dozens of miles in a straight line has more than doubled.

In the dark night, the road was bumpy, the newly received military horses had not yet been trained and matured, and they were not easy to control, and Man Gui and the others did not walk fast.

After walking all night, at dawn, I finally bypassed Jundu Mountain. More than ten miles ahead, there is the territory of Shanggu County, as long as the horse team is brought into Shanggu County, it will be completed.

Man Gui was encouraging his brothers to work harder, when he suddenly heard the sound of horses' hooves behind him.

Following the prestige, I saw flags fluttering behind me, and a cavalry team of more than 300 people was hurrying forward, all riding white horses.

Man Gui was shocked.

Although he had not dealt with him directly, Man Gui also knew that on the ground in Youzhou, only Gongsun Zhan had such an elite cavalry. And the whole team of white horse knights must be the famous white horse righteous servants under Gongsun Zhan!