In the third year of the Great Qianyuan Xing, the southern part of Shu was in turmoil, looting the prefectures and counties, plundering the salt fields, destroying the salt wells, and attacking the back road of Ma Heng, the general of Zhengnan.

100,000 mountains, endless jungles. In the endless no-man's land, all kinds of birds, beasts, insects and ants are everywhere in the mountains and forests, and poisonous miasma and poisonous insects are hiding everywhere, waiting for the arrival of prey.

Ma Heng, the general of Zhengnan, commanded the army to attack the barbarians in the southwest, and at the beginning the army was progressing smoothly, and the cadres and soldiers were invincible and invincible, and soon broke through the cottage under the mountain.

For this reason, the southern expeditionary army was full of joy, thinking that at most half a year, it would be possible to completely pacify the southwestern barbarians.

But soon Ma Heng paid the price for this, the local people did not welcome the arrival of their army, and even faintly hostile, it was very difficult for the imperial court to recruit people, and it was poor here, grain and grass materials needed to be deployed from Chengdu, and the progress of the army was slow.

Because Ma Heng had exterminated Shanyue and knew the difficulty of fighting in the mountains and forests, he did not attack on a large scale. Later, after several attempts, although the army had some successes, the losses were not small.

Later, the army's food and salary were repeatedly harassed by these barbarians, and even burned down in the mountain roads several times. Being so provoked, Ma Heng naturally wanted to return the color. The great cadres have been fighting in the east and west for decades, winning every battle, and the army is even more arrogant, and now they are so provoked by a group of southwestern barbarians, and the whole army is furious.

Even if Ma Heng forcibly suppressed it, the army's spirit was fluctuating, and the troops asked for war. Seeing this situation, and the army has been in the southwest for half a year, the weather has also turned cool, and it is no longer hot and unbearable, so the army entered the mountains to completely exterminate the southwest barbarians, and even for the sake of fighting in the mountains and forests, Ma Heng deliberately replaced the iron armor in the military with iron-inlaid armor and rattan armor to facilitate the movement of soldiers.

Ma Heng recruited a large number of Shanyue soldiers to open the road, open the road in the mountains, build bridges when encountering water, trek through mountains and rivers all the way, and broke 17 camps in a row. The morale of the army was high, and even Ma Heng felt that this battle was going to be won.

Seeing this, Ma Heng was uneasy and did not dare to pursue again, so he prepared to retreat.

But at this time, the southwestern barbarians suddenly outflanked from the rear. Ma Heng knew that the mountains and forests were difficult to travel and supplies were difficult, so he left many strongholds on the way to the army to transport grain and grass and protect the back road.

However, he did not expect that the southwestern barbarians would actually pay a heavy price of casualties and lure the enemy hundreds of miles deeper, even if they left a stronghold, the battle line was too long. Under the sudden attack of the southwestern barbarians, the rear road of the army was directly cut off, and the 40,000 army was trapped in the mountains and forests.

When he received the news, Ma Heng's face changed greatly, and he hurriedly ordered his own soldiers to block the news, and then led the army to retreat. But at this time, the southwestern barbarians began to use the jungle as a cover to constantly harass and attack the Daqian army.

During the day, there were poisonous arrows and rocks in the jungle, and at night there were attacks one after another, and the speed of the withdrawal of the army was very difficult. And the number of injured is growing.

Fortunately, Ma Heng was prepared in advance, and after a short distance, there were soldiers in the camp to respond, and there was grain in it, and the army was repaired with the help of the camp, and finally with the help of these camps reserved in advance, the army retreated little by little.

In the end, the back road cut off by the southwest barbarians was also forcibly opened by Ma Heng, but the army continued to fight and rush, suffered heavy casualties, and the grain and grass were almost cut off. In this case, Ma Heng had no choice but to lead his army to retreat.

And those southwestern barbarians are also pursuing and harassing all the way, if this continues, there will be no food and grass, and the army will not escape the destruction in the end. Seeing this situation, Ma Heng immediately summoned 3,000 soldiers, personally broke off, and carried out a Jedi counterattack against those southwestern barbarians who were pursuing.

In the first war, the barbarians in the southwest were defeated and thousands of enemies were killed. Ma Heng did not pursue, but led the army to continue the retreat. Without the pursuit of the southwestern barbarians, the army could finally withdraw in an orderly manner.

What Ma Heng didn't know was that just when his army was cut off from the back road, the southwestern barbarians gathered 100,000 people, went out of the mountains to attack the county seat, and even went north to capture Jingyan, looting tens of thousands of stones of Jingyan, and countless grains and grasses.

The population of Bashu is concentrated in the Chengdu Plain, and other areas are mostly mountainous, the roads are difficult to travel, and the population is not large, so it is not the opponent of the barbarians in the southwest at all, and the prefectures and counties can only hold on to the city. What's more, this time the barbarians looted the well salt, but it was not just barbarians.

In order to destroy the evidence, these people directly cooperated with the southwestern barbarians, deliberately lax their defenses, and let the southwestern barbarians occupy the well salt. In this way, even if the imperial court sent a large army and officials to come, everything was ruined, and no clues could be found.

After Ma Heng came back with his army, the entire land of Bashu had been disturbed by the southwestern barbarians, and Ma Heng hurriedly commanded the army to exterminate those southwestern barbarians. In the end, it took a lot of time to finally drive away the barbarians in the southwest, but the entire southern part of Bashu was devastated.

Although the towns were not breached, a large number of villages were plundered by the barbarians, and there were heavy casualties. Seeing this scene in front of him, Ma Heng had no choice but to write to the emperor to ask for guilt.

When the news of the upheaval in the southwest came, Wang Che was furious and immediately ordered to recruit warriors from Jinling and go against the grain to Bashu. At the same time, he sent an inspection of the imperial history and embroidered clothes to make the Chengdu garrison go to the salt field.

At the same time, a more detailed report was also sent by the secret guard, and when he saw the information of the secret guard, Wang Che almost lifted the table.

He still underestimated those nobles, heroes, and officials too much. These people can be said to be bold, after learning that the imperial court cleared the salt works and reformed the salt administration, they directly joined forces with the southwest barbarians to destroy the evidence, and at the same time forced the imperial court to give up the salt political reform in Bashu.

After investigation, the Dark Guard discovered that these people were using salt to exploit them. The salt production in the area where the southwest barbarians are located is very low, and most of the salt needed is imported by well salt, so these people use salt to wantonly squeeze those southwest barbarians, and finally the southwest barbarians are unbearable to squeeze, and they are directly reversed.

Originally, these people were worried that the imperial court would come to thoroughly investigate the salt farm, and when they saw the rebellion of the southwest barbarians, these people immediately thought of a good way, deliberately leaked the news to the southwest barbarians, lured them to attack the salt works, destroyed all the evidence with the help of the southwest barbarians, and successfully pushed all this to the southwest barbarians.

Even with these people, they deliberately leaked the news of Ma Heng's army, just to make Ma Heng defeated, let the southwest barbarians make things completely bigger, and force the imperial court to solve the southwest barbarians.

And if the imperial court wants to exterminate the barbarians in the southwest, it must use them, the head snakes. They deliberately made the southwestern barbarians bigger, and when the time came, the imperial court would need to send a large number of troops to destroy them.

These local snakes are familiar with the environment here, and the imperial court must rely on them to deal with the southwestern barbarians, even if they know about the salt farm, they can only let it go.

(End of chapter)