When Ma Chao got the news, he was stunned.

Not only Ma Chao, but even a resourceful person like Fa Zheng didn't expect it.

One can imagine how unusual this incident is.

The essence of the Han Dynasty is the five states of the Central Plains, and since the collapse of the Later Han Dynasty, the major wars that have taken place have all been in the Central Plains.

Those who get the Central Plains will be able to get the world, which is recognized by the people of the world.

The Kansai and Liangzhou occupied by Ma Chao and Han Sui are already quite remote areas in today's era.

So far, there has been no Central Plains scholar clan who has included Ma Chao in the ranks of princes who can compete for the world.

What Fa Zheng tirelessly pursues is to make Ma Chao a great prince in the world, so that people in the world will look down on him.

But the news came at this moment shocked both of them.

The king of Zhongxia actually attacked Liangzhou!

Liangzhou is already located in the western part of the Han border, and the farther the Western Regions are almost to the outside of the country.

No one has ever regarded the Western Regions as an opponent!

But at this moment, the King of Zhongxia used bloody facts to tell Ma Chao that the Western Regions is not a dispensable character.

The army of the Western Regions attacked Liangzhou, and Ma Chao arranged for the guards guarding Liangzhou to report three times a day.

Because Ma Chao withdrew the Liangzhou army, the army of the Western Regions can be said to be overwhelming, and if it continues like this, the four counties of Hexi will fall.

It is the key to connecting the Western Regions, and once lost, Ma Chao's Yongguo will be strategically passive.

After realizing this, Ma Chao didn't care about continuing to fight with the defeated princes' coalition army, and after hurriedly cleaning up the battlefield, he waved his army west to fight against the army of the Western Regions.

……

The king of Zhongxia looked at the mighty army, there were many monks and Taoist priests in the army, and he was reciting scriptures with the soldiers of the Western Regions, he was holding the Buddha beads in his left hand and the Taoist sword in his right hand, and he was also praying, first praising the Shizun and then the Tianzun.

After the routine worship was completed, the king of Zhongxia said to the princes of the Western Regions: "How many years have we been preparing?

Today finally succeeded in setting foot on the land of Liangzhou, this is just the beginning, conquering Liangzhou, then Guanzhong, and finally the Central Plains.

When they invaded Chang'an, they wanted to build the largest Taoist temple and temple in the city, and they also had to move the Suwang Temple to Chang'an.

When they invaded the Central Plains, the widows wanted to build a temple more than the White Horse Temple in Luoyang, the capital of the gods, and on the city wall of Luoyang, all the scriptures of Buddhism and Taoism were engraved. ”

The faith in the Central Plains is not prosperous, which is the biggest feeling of the nobles of the Western Regions along the way.

Although there are many believers and believers in Buddhism, compared to the country of thousands of miles of Buddhism in the Western Regions, this place is simply a desert.

How can this work?

The glory of the magnificent Buddhism, the nobles of the Western Regions are duty-bound!

Looking at the ministers with different expressions, the king of Zhongxia nodded secretly in his heart.

After so many years of integration, although the problem of the division of the Zhongxia Kingdom has not been completely resolved, it is at least much stronger than the previous forced combination, at least it will not be blown up directly after a failure.

Ma Chao, who galloped over, finally saw the king of Zhongxia and the army of Zhongxia who were brazenly attacking Liangzhou.

Then he gasped and looked at Fa Zheng in disbelief: "How can the strength of the Western Regions be so strong? ”

Since the Later Han Dynasty, the Central Plains did not know much about the Western Regions, neither knew the population geometry, nor did it know what the situation was in the territory, only the caravans that passed through the country shuttled back and forth in order to make money.

After all, even Kansai is considered to be the border of the war with the Qiang people, who would pay attention to the Western Regions, which are thousands of miles away from the capital?

The Western Regions Army, which now appears in front of Ma Chao and Fa Zheng, is a full tens of thousands of elite foot cavalry, and the armor rate is not inferior to that of the Han Army!

The Han Dynasty knew that the Western Regions had excellent forging techniques, and it was not a wild place.

This strength, looking at the entire world princes, should not be underestimated.

In particular, the combination of troops in the Western Regions is quite reasonable, and a large number of nomadic Western Regions Iron Cavalry are not afraid of the Western Liang Iron Cavalry at all.

Fa Zheng suddenly reacted and said with a rather ugly face: "When the Wushuang Zhongwu Marquis entered the Central Plains, it seemed that he brought tens of thousands of troops from the Western Regions.

We should have thought a long time ago, if the Wushuang Zhongwu Marquis could bring so many large armies, how could the King of Zhongxia, who unified the Western Regions, not be able to do it? ”

Ma Chao's scalp was numb and he said stiffly: "Xiaozhi, what should I do now?" ”

He didn't want to go head-to-head with the King of Zhongxia at all, and he couldn't be too vigilant against this kind of opponent he didn't understand.

Fa Zheng sighed, but his eyes were very clear, and he said seriously: "King, there is no other way but to fight."

The king of Zhongxia wants to go east, and taking the Hexi Corridor is the only passage, do you want to give up the Hexi Corridor?

After giving up the Hexi Corridor, the Western Regions Army will enter Guanzhong, do you still want to give up Guanzhong?

If this is the case, then it is better to surrender directly and follow the king of Zhongxia to wave his army eastward. ”

Ma Chao clenched the spear in his hand when he heard this, it is absolutely impossible for the two people with conflicting strategic goals to get along.

As soon as he thought of this, Ma Chao sent an envoy to the tent of the king of Zhongxia and said to the king of Zhongxia: "I don't know why the king wants to enter the Central Plains? Isn't it a beautiful thing to be lonely in the Western Regions? ”

When the king of Zhongxia heard this, he laughed and said: "Go back and tell King Yong that he is a citizen of Zhuxia, and the widow is also a citizen of Zhuxia.

I heard that King Yong's courage is better than ordinary people, and the widow has the heart of love, if King Yong is willing to surrender, the widow is willing to give the princess, so that King Yong will always keep the king. ”

When the envoy brought the words of the King of Zhongxia back to Ma Chao, Ma Chao was naturally angry, and even directly smashed a wine glass, and said angrily: "The King of Zhongxia is hateful, what a lowly person dares to talk like this to a widow." ”

When Ma Chao said this, he probably didn't expect that if it weren't for the chaos in the world, his status would probably not be as high as the current King of Zhongxia.

After all, the king of Zhongxia was the great nobleman of the original Liu family's Wusun Kingdom before he became king.

This kind of status, placed in the Central Plains, is at least a family of 2,000 stones, which is much better than the background of Ma Teng's family in chopping wood.

Ma Chaoyue wanted to get angrier, he really felt that he was insulted, what stinky fish and rotten shrimp also wanted to recruit himself?

Thinking of this, Ma Chao said directly to Fa Zheng: "Xiaozhi, since the king of the Western Regions is unwilling to retreat, then attack, let them see the power of my Xiliang Iron Cavalry."

Before the New Year next year, the widow will take the Xiliang Iron to ride for the New Year. ”

Although Ma Chao was shocked by the strength of the Western Regions, he was even more confident in his army, which was a strong army that had just defeated the combined forces of Han Sui and the generals of Xiliang.

The king of Zhongxia was also inspiring his army, and he also had great confidence in his army, especially the Praetorian Guard, which was directly under his command.

This army was killed all the way from the land of Wusun with him, and participated in almost every war to unify the north of the Tianshan Mountains.

In the face of the Hu army that invaded the Western Regions, he was also quite heroic.

The two of them, who were quite confident in their own army, started a doomed war on the vast steppe Gobi.

At that time, Luo Wuji and Huo Qubing led the Han cavalry to attack the Xiongnu tribes here, and finally drove them away from Yanzhi Mountain and Qilian Mountain, and the Han people took root here.

This land was born to be a battlefield of cavalry, and the field of vision was so vast that it was impossible to avoid it.

The world's elite Xiliang Iron Cavalry and the Western Regions Iron Cavalry ushered in the second collision.

The first collision was naturally Luo Kong and Dong Zhuo, at that time, because of the numerical inferiority, the Western Regions Iron Cavalry lost to the Western Liang Iron Cavalry.

And this time?

The land of the Western Regions has always had the habit of being a commander in the forerunner, because there is a habit of respecting the strong, and only the bravest warriors can be respected by all.

However, the king of Zhongxia knew his importance to the Zhongxia kingdom, so he just sat in the middle army and ordered the nobles who were the former lords of the Western Regions who submitted to him and were now canonized by him to attack.

Ma Chao, who is superb in martial arts, naturally wants to personally go into battle to lead the army, Fa Zheng makes a surprise plan for him, and he is responsible for realizing it, this is the matching mode that the two have always had, and so far, they have not suffered defeats.

……

Another strong wind struck, and the yellow sand swept through.

Under the dust, there is a corpse that has run out of blood, the death is different, dense, I don't know how many, among them are Han people, and there are people from the Western Regions.

If it weren't for the dry environment in Hexi, and the dry environment in the south, it would have been another plague.

The war between the Western Regions and Guanzhong has been going on for four whole months!

Both sides misestimated the strength of their opponents, and this was not a crushing game for either side, but a stalemate between the opponents.

This is the situation that is most feared in the war.

In the vast Hexi Corridor, from the Gobi Desert to the foot of the farmland mountain, there are corpses of the Western Regions Army and the Yongguo Army everywhere.

It is no longer clear how many casualties there were.

Ma Chao and King Zhongxia may not have thought about stopping in this process, but as long as they talked, they knew that it was impossible.

It is impossible for the King of Zhongxia to retreat to the Western Regions, and it is impossible for him to retreat until the blood of the other lords of the Western Regions is shed.

As long as the Praetorian Guard is still there, his strength is the strongest, and he can constantly drive others to consume Ma Chao's army.

Moreover, the king of Zhongxia had long planned to attack Liangzhou, so he moved the political center to the border of Dunhuang early, and after occupying Dunhuang County, he moved the scholars and so on in Dunhuang County to the Western Regions, and replaced all the people in the county with monks and Taoists who came with the army.

These monks and Taoists were literate intellectuals who were good enough to do the job.

Ma Chao watched the number of Xiliang Iron Riders being consumed, and felt that his heart was dripping blood.

I can only make up my mind with great difficulty, draw troops from the Qiang tribe and Guanzhong, and at the same time rearm the previously captured Xiliang Iron Cavalry and throw them into this battlefield.

The plan to take down the entire Kansai after discussing with Fa Zheng before, and then peeking into Shuzhong, was completely stranded!

You can only throw all the resources at your disposal into this war.

People of insight on both sides have seen that it is impossible to end this war in a short period of time, and in the end it is up to see who cannot hold on first.

It's a war of life.

But Ma Chao is really aggrieved, if he loses, then the king of Zhongxia will get Liangzhou and Guanzhong.

But if he wins, it is still impossible for him to waste time attacking the Western Regions.

It was a land that was too foreign to him.

This kind of thing that loses everything, wins but gains nothing, no one wants to do.

How can Ma Chao not go crazy?

He said a little depressedly: "The widow never imagined that one day Liangzhou and Guanzhong could become the land of the four wars. ”

Yes.

Land of the Four Wars.

This is what Fa Zheng described to Ma Chao about their current situation, which is something that Fa Zheng did not expect.

Whether it was the original Qin State or Emperor Gao, before leaving the customs, they all swept away the troubles, but this so-called sweeping away the troubles actually only reached Longxi.

But after three hundred years of development.

In the face of cruel facts, Fa Zheng and Ma Chao had to tell the world one thing.

Times have changed!

Guanzhong is no longer the westernmost land of Zhuxia!

To the west of Guanzhong, there is also the Western Regions that have always wanted to go east, and the current Guanzhong is Hedong and Heluo in the Bangzhou period, and the Western Regions is the original Guanzhong.

In today's Guanzhong, the west must defend against the Western Regions, the north must defend against the attack of the grassland, the south must prevent the attack of Hanzhong, not to mention the east, Wuguan, Hangu Pass, and Dahe Ferry have always been heavily guarded.

Although there are mountains and rivers and dangerous passes, it is an indisputable fact that there are enemies everywhere in the passes.

Especially the enemy from the Western Regions, once they attack Liangzhou, there are only a few passes left in front of them, among which Xiao Pass is the most difficult to defend.

For the first time, Fa Zheng felt so powerless, the strategists made suggestions, not patted their heads to make decisions, the commanders were not just talking on paper, the strategists all had certain information, and then calculated something according to this information, and then predicted the actions of the locality, just like the generals led the march of a large army, not just casually, but to judge the location based on countless information.

The biggest problem that Fa Zheng encountered now is that he has a black eye on the Western Regions, and Yongguo has no intelligence agency in the Western Regions, so he can only rely on a little information from the caravan, but it is useless.

And the king of Zhongxia, who has always wanted to get involved in Guanzhong, knows the Central Plains very well, the so-called knowing oneself and knowing the other, and not being defeated in a hundred battles, in this war, it is quite normal for the Western Regions to gradually gain the upper hand.

With the increasing casualties, Ma Chao felt a little unbearable, and he even had the idea of giving up Liangzhou, all shrinking into the pass, sticking to the four stops in the pass, and relying on the danger to block the attacking Western Regions army.

After he informed Fa Zheng of this idea, he thought that Fa Zheng, who had always been radical, would oppose it, but he didn't expect Fa Zheng to really think about it, only to see Fa Zheng ponder for a while, and then said slowly: "Great King, the minister has always been very worried about one thing, that is, the heavy casualties of our army and the Western Regions Army, do the princes of the Central Plains know?" ”

Ma Chao was shocked!

————

The war between the warlord Ma Chao at the end of the Han Dynasty and the Xia Kingdom in the Western Regions was extremely damaging to the Western Regions, Liangzhou and Guanzhong in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, but it had far-reaching significance. ——"History of the War in the Late Eastern Han Dynasty"

(End of chapter)