After passing Tianshui City, the route from Tianshui to Jicheng was not too heavily guarded. Even in the middle of the night, Liu Yi and his party were unimpeded, stained with a little light from Wang Yi and his party, and the defenders of the checkpoint should be allowed to go.

However, Liu Yi and Wang Yue and others did not meet with Wang Yi and others who took a step earlier, in contrast, the checkpoint from Tianshui to Jicheng did not affect the passage of everyone, it can be said that even if Liu Yi and others passed Guò Those who kept the card would not know.

This is the advantage of being a master, everyone dare not say that they can fly the eaves and walk the wall, but they walk silently, climb the cliff or something, it is not a problem.

Therefore, after the early hours of the morning, Liu Yi, Wang Yue and others unknowingly stole the Xiongguan Jicheng guarding the west of Tianshui City. Everyone still had time to find a house and rest for a little night.

As soon as the sky dawned, Liu Yi headed for Longxi.

There are two routes from Jicheng to Xiliang Longxi, one is through the upper valley, and the other is through the northern plain.

Before, these two passes had been taken down by Ma Chao, but after attacking Jicheng and being defeated by Wang Yi, Shanggu and Beiyuan had been taken back by Li Dao.

In order to meet Ma Chao as much as possible, Liu Yi took a straight line from the northern plains to Guò.

In fact, it is not far from Jicheng to Longxi, but it is only about two hundred miles, but it still took Liu Yi a day.

When I arrived in Longxi, it was already dark.

In Longxi City, as soon as Liu Yi entered the city, he felt a gloomy and miserable atmosphere, and the streets in the city were sprinkled with yellow and white paper money. Blown by the cold wind, even the snow can't bury the yellow and white paper money all over the streets.

And that's not even counting the streets. Almost every house has white flags hanging at the door, hunting in the wind, and from time to time there are whimpering and crying, which makes people feel desolate.

Liu Yi was a little stunned at first, but after Wang Yue explained a little, Liu Yi came to his senses.

It turned out that most of Ma Chao's sergeants were the children of the people in Longxi City. He suffered several defeats in a row, and his soldiers suffered heavy casualties. In this way, the people in Longxi City have lost countless children. will cause the current situation, which seems to be full of mourning.

It's been a while since Ma Chao's last defeat, but he didn't expect the impact to continue until now.

But then again. Since the establishment of the New Han Dynasty, Liu Yi has been established. The New Han Army had never suffered such a heavy defeat. Therefore, Liu Yi really didn't think that the defeat of a battle would cause such a bleak and miserable situation in a city.

Longxi City, an important town in the southeast of Xiliang, is only a little worse than Tianshui City, and its population is generally around 300,000. Ma Chao lost the battle, losing tens of thousands of horses. Almost every family in Longxi City has children who have been damaged.

It seems that this time. The vitality of Ma Teng's father and son was really hurt.

There are few pedestrians on the street, and there is a solemn scene.

When he entered the city, Liu Yi also noticed that most of the sergeants at the head of the city were listless, and the morale of the army was afraid that it had fallen to the lowest point.

Liu Yi did not alarm the soldiers defending the city, but went straight to the official office of Longxi City.

After the briefing, Ma Teng and his subordinates hurriedly came out to greet him.

When Ma Teng saw Liu Yi, there was joy on his face, but this joy could not hide the haggard on his face, especially his eyes were bloodshot, and the whole person seemed to have lost a lot of weight. Seeing him like this, Liu Yi knew that Ma Teng was also very worried about Ma Chao's successive defeats and heavy losses, otherwise, he would not be like this.

"My lord, it's great that you're here. The last general and the dog Ma Chao were incompetent, the attack on Tianshui was not smooth, and they failed to receive the lord's army into Xiliang, my father and son are willing to bear any punishment for this failure, please surrender the lord! Ma Teng led the generals, knelt on the snow, and pleaded guilty to Liu Yi.

Liu Yi stepped forward, pulled Ma Teng up, and then waved to the people behind Ma Teng and said: "General Ma Teng, generals, the so-called victory and defeat is a common thing in soldiers, what are you guilty of?" Hurry up, please, let's go inside. ”

"Yes, my lord, please!"

Ma Teng didn't dwell on the matter anymore, and got up to lead the way for Lewi.

"What about Ma Chao?"

Liu Yi sat on the main desk in the official hall, glanced at the generals with his eyes, and asked.

"Well, my lord, the dog is still angry, he ...... He didn't seem to quite understand the Lord's order to send someone to make us suspend the attack on Tianshui. Ma Teng smiled bitterly and said: "This kid, he was not convinced and lost to a woman's family, if it wasn't for the last general to stop him, he might have wanted to sneak into Jicheng to find that Wang Yi to settle accounts." ”

"Settle accounts? Hehe, go and call him. Let's talk about a few things together, and then discuss how to take Jicheng as much as possible, point to Tianshui, and eliminate Li Dao. Lewis said noncommittally.

Liu Yi now, we must first find out the process of Ma Chao and Wang Yi's feud, and see if Ma Chao is the first to lose, if it is really Ma Chao's loss. Liu Yi is afraid that it is really a bit difficult to do.

Of course, no matter what, Liu Yi has to keep Ma Chao. Well, Liu Yi is not a saint, so he is naturally a little selfish, and it is impossible for him to really let Ma Chao be killed by Wang Yi. Even if Wang Yi has agreed to marry him.

This, saying a thousand things and ten thousand, is mainly because Liu Yi has a lustful heart for Wang Yi, but he has just met, and he has no feelings for Wang Yi yet, so it is impossible to put Ma Chao to death because of her.

After a while, Ma Chao was invited, and he met Liu Yi as a master's courtesy.

"Master, the incompetence of the apprentices has caused our army to lose so many soldiers, and it is the apprentices who have brought shame on the undefeated reputation of our new Han army. Please condemn Master! Ma Chaojun's face flushed, and he said with a look of shame.

Relatively speaking, Ma Chao in history, although he is brave and brave, but when it comes to strategy, compared with the other five tiger generals Zhao Yun, Guan Yu, and Huang Zhonglai, he may lose a lot of color. It is estimated that it is about the same as Zhang Fei. Or, he is not suitable for the princes, otherwise, with his strength and the strength of his subordinate general Pang De, it is enough for him to dominate Xiliang, at least, he should have annexed the princes of Xiliang earlier, so that he would not lead to the later battle with Cao Cao to fail miserably due to the betrayal of his allies.

Of course, the conditions in Xiliang are indeed very bad, and it is estimated that it is not easy to develop and grow.

In general, Liu Yi still felt that Ma Chao was slightly lacking a kind of supervision. Compared with Zhao Yun, Tai Shici, and Huang Xu, the three generals who Liu Yi had high expectations, the use of troops is a little insufficient.

These may also be the relationship between Ma Chao and some advanced war theories of the New Han Army.

However, Liu Yi didn't care too much about the defeat this time, and comforted Ma Chao and said: "Meng Qi, no one in this world dares to say that he is always invincible, so you don't have to think about it." Losing a battle is not losing everything, thinking about how to break the enemy is the most important thing. Get up. ”

"Yes, Master!" Although Ma Chao worships Liu Yi as a teacher, he has not learned much from Liu Yi, he is similar to Sun Ce, he is equivalent to a registered disciple, but Ma Chao has great respect for Liu Yi and is very polite.

"Alright, let's sit down and talk." Liu Yi motioned for Ma Chao to sit down, then looked at him and said: "The general situation, I already have some understanding, today from Jicheng to this Longxi City through the North Plains, I have also observed all the way, this more than 200 miles of route, there are many places suitable for ambushes, if the march is careless, it may suffer unexpected blows." It's all my fault, I should have sent more people to help you. ”

"Master, this is all to blame on that Wang Yi and that slut, if she hadn't used some conspiracy and tricks, how could our army have been ambushed? It's infuriating that she ambushed the apprentice twice in the same place and in the same way......"

"Haha, Meng Qi, it seems that after the capture of Tianshui City, you have to go to Luoyang Xishan Military Academy to study for a while. War is meant to be done in all its ways, and sometimes, it is not simply won by relying on military courage. So, don't talk about what tricks Wang Yi used, and don't despise women. Seeing Ma Chao's unconvinced look, Liu Yi couldn't help but feel a little funny.

"Yes......" Ma Chao said with his head bowed.

"Meng Qi, there is one thing I want to ask you, when you and your father returned to Longxi from Luoyang, did you kill a couple on the way?" Liu Yi asked with a straight face.

"This ......" Ma Chao seemed to think for a moment, then nodded: "Yes." ”

"Do you know who you are?" Leo asked again.

"Ahem...... Lord, did Chao'er kill the wrong person? ”

Liu Yi's question made Ma Teng, Ma Chao and his son, and all the generals of the Ma family a little puzzled, and Ma Teng couldn't help coughing twice.

"That's not what I mean, or you can tell me what happened at the time." Liu Yi shook his head and said.

"Okay." Ma Chao also looked a little dazed, but he still nodded and said: "It was evening, we had to leave Tianshui before it got dark, I went first with a group of people, and my father followed." I found that Li Dao was sending a group of people out of the city, and it seemed that he was very good with the leader of this group, and I felt that the relationship between this group and Li Dao was not shallow, otherwise Li Dao would not have personally sent them out of the city. However, at that time, we didn't think about clashing with them, but we didn't expect that we were on the same road. Not far from Tianshui City, they were about to hurry up, and just as we were in front, they shouted for us to give way...... Well, in order to be able to leave Tianshui safely, we are all dressed as ordinary people, and they think that we are just ordinary people. One of the horses was frightened and charged at our men, and in their anger they drew their hidden swords, but they did not want to, and when the group saw that we had drawn their swords in unison, they cried out and shouted what a robber. They were very nervous and guarded their goods, and some of them even killed them indiscriminately. That couple was actually a master, and as soon as they appeared, they killed more than a dozen of our brothers in a row. Seeing this, the disciple was furious and slew the couple, and when they had killed them, their men were so frightened that they did not even want the goods to be escorted. ”

Hearing Ma Chao say this, Liu Yi's heart was almost clear. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief in my heart, but at the same time I was a little speechless, it turned out that Yiqiē might just be a misunderstanding. (To be continued......)