Ma Chao's goal is to move towards the southwest and consolidate most of Hanyang County, which has just been won; At the same time, challenge Han Sui and fight a decisive battle with the rebels.

But as soon as he entered Liangzhou and stepped on the land of Liangzhou, Ma Chao instantly felt that the temperament of Liangzhou was completely different from that of Sanfu. Sanfu is Guanzhong, fertile fields for thousands of miles, fertile fields are widely gathered, everywhere you can see the tall dock fort established by the nobles and strongmen, whether it is the rich and noble people in brocade clothes, or the people with short brown knots, most of them have full faces: this is the manifestation of abundant food and not knowing hunger; From time to time, you can see the tombs of the emperors of the Qin and Han dynasties, and there are often soldiers guarding the tombs patrolling everywhere. Sanfu, everywhere exudes a natural richness, nobility, and brightness, as if people can smell a trace of nobility from Sanfu's wind.

Liangzhou, on the other hand, is barren and barren in its fields, full of loess slopes and small patches of verdant grasslands; But there are no people, but wolves, wild dogs, crows, etc. are the most common and common; On the road and in the wilderness, you can sometimes see something shining, and when you go forward, you can see that it is a weapon, and sometimes you can also come across a corpse of white bones, or a thin horse with arrows stuck in its body but grazing leisurely; The dry, charred trees were always covered with flocks of crows, and as soon as they approached, these black things, which exuded a corrupt and oppressive atmosphere, rose into the air and let out a strange cry that made people worry;

The sky is always gloomy and blue, cloudy, but it never rains, and the sun seems to hate the land, and never reveals the slightest light in the cracks of the clouds; At night, the bright moon and the sun also hate this land, so they hide deep in the clouds and never show the slightest outline; Only the wolves are very attentive, always as if they had jumped out of hell, chasing and howling in the wilderness, and the howl always reminds people of corpses and death...... The night wind howled through the plains and up the ridges, and the wind was so strange that it automatically thought it was an accusation from the spirits of the dead...... In short, Liangzhou feels like a graveyard, eerie, terrifying, silent, and lifeless......

Ma Chao stayed away from the street pavilion, and after stepping into Liangzhou, he gradually found that he hadn't laughed for a long time; Gradually, he found that the whole army was only marching in silence, and few people talked, and even the most pleasing Ma Dai did not show a bright and immature smile.

Ma Chao knew that Liangzhou had been in turmoil for a hundred years, but he didn't expect that these turmoil and death would put a gloomy coat on Liangzhou. At this time, Ma Chao became more and more aware of the difficulty of separating Liangzhou. Ma Chao even began to think that maybe he had crossed over to decide to occupy Xiliang, and he was wrong from the beginning. There are more than a dozen states and counties in the world, which one is not better than Liangzhou?

Ma Chao then changed his mind, thinking that after completely defeating Han Sui, if the imperial court had other orders to send him to other states and counties to defend, he would respond.

After making this decision, Ma Chao's mood was better, but one thing that made him not very happy was that he had never met anyone along the march; Those who happened to come across were all lying on the ground and rotting, or hanging on trees, or falling with their horses. Ma Chao also encountered many dilapidated villages during the march, but he has never met a single living person in Liangzhou.

This made Ma Chao feel that something was not right, and sent scouts to the Quartet to investigate, and finally met living people in the direction of Longxian, and there were many of them. This happened to be in the direction of his march, and Ma Chao led the army to rush to the southwest.

But what he saw surprised Ma Chaoda. I saw that it was a small village, which had been burned black and shattered by the fire, and there was black smoke. In the village in the black smoke, dozens of people could be faintly seen, old and young, men and women, but there were no men in the prime of life. When Ma Chao saw it, he first worried about it, this must be a disaster brought about by turmoil, and the people were seriously damaged.

Ma Chao was shocked, angry and heartbroken, he suddenly turned over and dismounted, and walked towards the village. Seeing Ma Chao like this, the parts behind it are a little unbelievable; Those soldiers who were born in the thief army and had just defected to Ma Chao showed many expressions of shame, uneasiness, regret and so on.

Ma Chao walked into the village alone and saw dozens of people still remaining, all of them withered, their eyes were blank, their clothes were tattered, their hair was messy, and some of them had scars from being burned by fire. People looked at Ma Chao indifferently and cautiously, and as soon as Ma Chao approached, they stepped back. From time to time, Ma Chao could see corpses, cold and stinky, with arrows and ring-headed knives stuck in the corpses, and blood stained the soil.

Looking at it more closely, Ma Chao felt even more worried. On a dirt road in the village, the body of a young child lay on its back, her dress torn to shreds, her lower body with a ring-headed knife, a large pool of blood, and a desperate and helpless look on her young face: her eyes were wide open, her lips were slightly open, and she was covered with tears...... Ma Chao can probably already imagine what kind of suffering this young child suffered before his death.

Look at the young child, she still has two horns on her head, her eyebrows and eyes are cute and immature, and she still holds a red rattle in her slender palm, and there is a drop of blood on the white drum surface.

Staring at this young child, Ma Chao's eyes suddenly became hot, and there seemed to be a foreign body in his throat, which made his throat uncomfortable, and it hurt when he twitched. His heart seemed to be dripping blood, and he thought that if there was no chaos, perhaps this young child could grow up happily and become a slim girl; can marry a simple and honest man next to her or neighboring township, and have a child as cute as her...... However, all this was a fantasy, and because of the war, her life ended before it even began.

Ma Chao gritted his teeth, and two lines of tears hung down from his red eyes. He wiped his tears with the back of his hand, but he couldn't wipe them quickly, and the tears flowed faster than him. Ma Chao sniffled, first pulled out the ring-headed knife and threw it away, and then untied the brocade robe draped behind him. The people and sergeants all watched Ma Chao untie his robe, not knowing what he was going to do.

Ma Chao swallowed tears, lowered his body, and gently closed the young child's eyes with his fingers. Then he pinched the two corners of the brocade robe with both hands, solemnly draped the brocade robe over the child's corpse, and wrapped the child's corpse. The indifferent and numb people who were watching finally changed color and were touched. The sergeants were also touched, and many people, even soldiers from the thief army, hung their heads in guilt and did not dare to look at them.

When Ma Chao got up again, the corpse of the child covered in the brocade robe was already in the crook of his arm. Ma Chao's eyes were blank, but they were as red as two coals of fire.

The whole world was silent. Dozens of people and 20,000 horses all looked at Ma Chao's tall figure intently, and no one spoke. Suddenly, a woman among the people burst into tears. Immediately afterwards, the other people also cried loudly, ran out from between the broken walls and rubble, and knelt down in front of Ma Chao.