The beginning of the Three Kingdoms Cheng Yuanzhi

Chapter 175 This Is War Blackmail

in the big tent.

In front of Guo Jia, Cheng Yuanzhi gave Agudo some advice.

Half an hour later, Aguduo walked out of the camp with confidence.

Since it took time to deal with the aftermath of a fight, neither the Xiliang Army nor the Hebei Army started fighting again in the next seven days.

The two sides sent personnel to collect the bodies of their own dead soldiers, as well as the armor and weapons scattered on the battlefield.and prepare for the next war.

During these seven days, there had been fast horses going back and forth to Xuchang, and the imperial decree had been invited.

Carrying the imperial edict, Aguduo came with two followers from the official road, and was stopped by Xiliang soldiers. After interrogation, he was taken to the Zuo Army camp.

Zuoying was built along the river, on a vast flat land eighty miles east of Anding City. A large number of simple horse hermitages were built inside. Countless horses of different colors were surrounded by wooden fences, snoring and pawing their hooves. , wagging his tail, eating the grass happily.

While walking, groups of mobile sentry guards patrolled around the tent.A strong smell of human and animal excrement mixed together filled the air, causing Agudo to frown slightly.

Turning and turning around in the big camp, after a short walk, he arrived outside Ma Teng's handsome tent.

Ma Teng and Han Sui came over with their leaders and others, bowed their hands and said, "I've seen an angel!"

Afterwards, Aguduo was politely invited into the commander's tent, and many leaders, big and small, who came after hearing the news, gathered outside the tent to wait.

They also want to hear why the court envoy came.

It is the normal state of the Xiliang army to fight, talk and make peace, and fight again after the peace.

It is quite normal in Liangzhou to be an opponent today and become a friend tomorrow.

Usually, after every battle, whether it is a victory or a loss, there will always be envoys.

The right to speak of the winning party is greatly increased, while the losing party is obedient and allows the winning party to make demands.

So, they are all used to it.

Ma Teng is about 40 years old, more than eight feet long, burly, with a distinctive face and nose, virtuous and loyal, and is respected by everyone among the Han and Qiang tribes in Xiliang.

During the reign of Ling Emperor Liu Hong, Ma Teng was originally a court official. After Geng Bi, the governor of Liangzhou, was killed by his subordinates, he was kidnapped by Wang Guo, Han Sui and others, and jointly raised troops in Liangzhou to fight against the Han and separatize the prefectures and counties.

In the second year of Chuping (191), Ma Teng and Han Sui accepted Dong Zhuo's recruitment of the imperial court and returned to Hanchen.

In the first year of Xingping (194), Ma Teng connected courtiers and wanted to kill powerful officials Li Jue and Guo Si.But because of his defeat, he was defined as a rebel, so he had to retreat to Liangzhou, and then he had a disagreement with Han Sui and attacked each other.

When Cheng Yuanzhi's soldiers came under pressure, the two sides put aside their suspicions and joined forces to protect themselves.

In general, Ma Teng still loves the court.

The two sides entered the camp and after the imperial decree was announced, Ma Tenggao took the main seat, Agudo sat on the upper right hand, and Han Sui sat on the left upper hand.

After everyone was seated, Agudo did not follow Ma Teng in circles, but went straight to the point:
"General Ma Teng, you used to be the governor of Liangzhou personally appointed by the imperial court. You were falsely accused of being a traitor by Li Jue and Guo Si. Now that your majesty has pardoned your sins, how dare you rise up to resist the imperial court again? Is it possible that the general still has the power to fight against the imperial court?" Rebellious?"

Ma Teng's face was awkward for a moment, and he cupped his hands and said: "The general sent 20 troops to come, punish Li Jue, imprison Guo Si, rehabilitate Sanfu, and force Liangzhou. In order to protect myself, I was forced to fight against it. There is absolutely no intention of competing with the imperial court."

Han Sui interjected from the side: "Please, your Majesty, put the court aside for a while, and please tell me the true purpose of this trip."

The implication of Han Sui's words is that everyone knows what the court is like now, and don't play with those empty heads. Is it war or peace?Let's talk about conditions, please draw a line.

Aguduo said sternly: "The general now holds the power of the imperial court and wants to bring peace to the world and restore the glory and glory of the past. However, the Xiliang army raised a large force to resist the millions of lions of the imperial court. This move is no less than a mantis trying to use its arms as a chariot. It is very unwise. .”

"At this moment, the situation of the two generals is already critical. I hope they can judge the situation and lead the Xiliang army to submit to the imperial court as soon as possible. Don't make mistakes."

"Otherwise, when the army passes by in the future, there is no reason for the two generals' families to survive!"

Intimidation, naked intimidation!
As soon as these words came out, everyone's expressions changed.

Before Ma Teng and Han Sui had time to express their stance, Ma Chao took the lead, pointed his sword at Aguduo, and glared angrily: "Are you threatening our Xiliang army?"

"If you hand over the military power, how can my father and brother survive!"

"If you want to fight, fight. We have a hundred thousand soldiers in Xiliang, but we are not afraid of the million-strong army in Hebei."

Being pointed at by the long sword, Aguduo looked at Ma Teng without fear and said, "Could this be the Major General Ma Chao? Looking at his heroic appearance in the battle that day, he is really a dragon and a phoenix among men, and his bravery is no less than that of Lu Bu."

Seeing Agudo praise his son instead, Ma Teng felt very happy. He stroked his beard and said repeatedly:

"The reputation is too high, the reputation is too high, the dog is not so good."

The implication of this sentence is that if you continue to boast, I, Ma Teng, can still stand it.

Reaching out his hand not to hit the smiling man, Ma Chao also snorted coldly, put his sword back in its sheath.

The atmosphere had just calmed down, but Aguduo's voice changed and he said, "A talent like the Major General is worth more than two palms in Hebei."

"The two armies confronted each other that day, and all the generals saw it. Hebei's fierce generals were like a cloud, and they all won the three armies bravely."

After bragging about his military strength and generals, Aguduo said again: "Although our country is young today, everyone is aware of its wisdom and has always been virtuous in the world. It goes without saying that the people of the world miss Han. The two generals have raised an unknown army today. Resisting the imperial soldiers cannot be justified anywhere."

"Furthermore, the two generals were previously charged with the crime of rebellion. General Ma Teng is the follower of General Fubo. Now he is forgiven, serving the imperial court rightfully, and sending hostages to the imperial court in the name of being loyal to the emperor and patriotic."

"Otherwise, a hundred years from now, the two of you will only be known as traitors. Wouldn't it be a disgrace to our ancestors and to our descendants?"

From the time Aguduo entered the camp to now, he has been condescending and questioned the Xiliang Army's position from the moral high ground. All his words were based on reason, especially the sentence "after General Fubo", which directly hit Ma Teng's last words. A fact that cannot be avoided.

You are a beautiful woman, why do you think you are a bandit?
In fact, as far as the current situation is concerned, the imperial court has decided that the general will lead an army of 20 to suppress the border. As long as the Xiliang army cannot win, it will be a failure.

Because the war has reached a stalemate, the two sides are actually competing for war potential.Whoever has a large population and a large territory has a greater potential for war and a greater chance of winning.

Therefore, Ma Teng and Han Sui should not continue to resist. What's more, the former was a famous general in the Han Dynasty and was pardoned by the court for his crimes. At this moment, they should be grateful and surrender to the court immediately.

Ma Teng and Han Sui glanced at each other, both a little discouraged by the bleak prospects of the Xiliang Army.

Normally, the two should kneel down immediately at this moment, agree to Agudo's request, send the hostages to Xuchang, and submit to the court.

But Ma Teng glanced at his son Ma Chao, looking very hesitant, and suddenly asked: "Apart from this, does the general have any other requirements?"

"this one"

Agudo was really stopped by the question, pondered for a moment, and said: "This is really true."

"When they came down, the general once said that the two generals only need to stop fighting, send hostages to the court, and return the five counties of Anding, Beidi, Longxi, Wudu, and Hanyang under the jurisdiction of Liangzhou."

"Five counties are enough?" Ma Chao laughed angrily, "In this way, what is left in Liangzhou?"

Agudo said calmly: "There are also five counties of Wuwei, Jincheng, Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Dunhuang."

Hearing this, Ma Chao's violent temper could not be suppressed on the spot, and he raised his sword to stab Agudo to death to let him know why the flowers are so red.

Good guy, I'm going to go to the five counties of Liangzhou, which are the five most populous counties.

Where is the face?Do you want face?
Thanks to Ma Tie holding down his younger brother tightly to prevent him from getting violent, otherwise Agudo would have been stabbed to death by his younger brother.

Although Liangzhou has ten counties and covers an area of ​​two thousand miles, it is not a wealthy state, and the population distribution is very uneven. It has a total population of 80 million, and more than half of them are concentrated in the five counties to the east.

If the five east counties of Liangzhou were ceded at once, the [-] army of Xiliang would not need to be fought by anyone, and would be disbanded directly.

Because the total population of the remaining five counties is less than 20.

That is the real land is sparsely populated, thousands of miles uninhabited.

How can a population of 20 feed an army of [-]?

Originally, although Ma Chao was annoyed at being threatened by the Hebei army, he still took the court envoy seriously.

But after he said the words "cede five counties", he no longer had any favor or respect for the imperial court.

Let’s take a look at the conditions that the Hebei Army put forward in the name of the imperial court: first, to stop the troops and make a truce; second, to send hostages into the court; third, to cede control of the five counties east of Liangzhou.

Is this what people do?

Those who didn't know better thought that the Liangzhou army had been defeated.

However, the fact is that in the first confrontation, the Xiliang Army had the upper hand, and the Hebei Army was at a disadvantage.

Seeing that Aguduo did not panic at all when he was threatened by Ma Chao, Ma Teng said with a smile: "We already understand what the general means. Please move to a separate camp to rest, and allow me to think twice."

Agudo cupped his hands and said: "I hope the general will make a decision early, so don't make mistakes."

After all, he left the camp under the guidance of the soldiers.

Do you want to agree to three requests?Especially the last requirement.

Ma Teng and Han Sui looked at each other and said nothing, each weighing their own concerns.

Outside the tent, the leaders were worried. If the five eastern counties were ceded, they would have to live in the windy and sandy western five counties. The five eastern counties that had once run wildly became the territory of the imperial court.

Seeing that both his father and Han Sui were silent, Ma Chao couldn't bear his impatience and said, "Why should my father and uncle be afraid of them? Although the Hebei army is large, we still have the upper hand. Besides, even if we can't defeat us, we can still leave. Can we?" Can they still pursue them to the Western Region?"

My child, they can really catch up to the Western Regions... Ma Teng waved his hand and sighed: "After all, my Ma family has been a Han official for generations. What we did today is wrong. You can step back. After I discuss it with your uncle, I’ll let you know again.”

After thinking about it, Ma Teng added: "In short, it won't cause my son to suffer."

Hearing this, Ma Chao bid farewell to Ma Teng and Han Sui, and left the camp.

With his father's words, he felt relieved.

(End of this chapter)