"No! This is not true!" Ma Chao howled with a shrill voice. He grabbed the collar of the soldier who reported the news, pinched the soldier's neck, and shouted viciously, "This is not true! How dare you curse my father?
I'm going to kill you! Kill you!"
"Meng Qi!" Han Sui shouted in a deep voice, "Calm down!"
Ma Chao stiffened for a moment, then slowly released his hands.
The soldiers who had narrowly escaped death covered their necks, gasping and coughing violently. Then when they saw Han Sui sitting on top and waving his hands, they felt relieved and ran out in a hurry.
Han Sui glanced at Ma Chao, who was still standing dumbfounded, with a rather complicated look on his face.
"Li Thief! I am at odds with you!"
After a while, Ma Chao came to his senses and pulled out his sword, cut a bloody cut on his palm, and then smeared it on his face.
This is the tradition of the Qiang people. They paint their faces with blood to make an oath of alliance and express their intention to repay blood with their enemies.
"Uncle!" Ma Chao turned to Han Sui and said through gritted teeth, "Let's march! I will catch Thief Li with my own hands and cut him into pieces!"
Han Sui moved his eyebrows slightly but said nothing.
Didn't move either.
March forward, fight back, fight as hell.
Where's the food?
Are you going to eat wind and earth?
Where are the horses that were originally lost?
What about the equipment?
Where are the arrows?
Can it fall from the sky?
Not to mention other things, the food and grass on hand now, even if I eat sparingly, will not last more than five days, seven days at most. If I want to attack Li Jue, let’s not talk about whether I can win the battle. The food and grass along the way alone must be from
Where to come out?
What's more, if we really want to march into the army, there are so many related matters involved, and nothing can be that simple.
"Uncle! Uncle!" Ma Chao didn't understand why Han Sui was silent. He thought it was because Han Sui hadn't made up his mind yet, so he shouted again and again.
Han Sui said: "Meng Qi, I am heartbroken when brother Shoucheng is attacked by this murder, but... we don't have much food in stock now, and if we move in a hurry, we may be taken advantage of by others, so this matter needs to be considered in the long term...
"
"No! I'm going to kill him! Kill him!" Ma Chao's face was covered with his own blood, and his originally handsome face looked a bit ferocious.
Han Sui sighed, and first asked someone to bandage Ma Chao's hand a little, and then he pulled Ma Chao to sit down and comforted him: "Meng Qimo, don't be impatient. I can understand your mood, but if you want to march, it really doesn't matter."
Simple."
Ma Chao wanted to stand up, but Han Sui held him back. He had no choice but to sit down, but he still said with murderous intent: "What's not easy? Just kill! Kill Thief Li directly from here! I want revenge! Revenge!"
Han Sui endured it, and then said: "Li is a very evil thief. This revenge must be avenged, but we must also pay attention to some methods. My dear nephew, does he know how much rations we have in stock?"
Ma Chao blinked and said matter-of-factly: "Isn't it my uncle who is in charge of food and grass?" You Han Sui, you don't know who is in charge of this, how can I know?
Han Sui was silent for a moment, and then said: "The amount of food and grass in Xiwu is only five days... and from here to Xinfeng, it is more than five days' journey... If there is any delay on the way, or...
We can't find Thief Li for a while, and we're going to be hungry, so how can we fight?"
After Ma Chao heard this, he was silent for a while. He still knew the importance of food and grass to some extent, and did not say anything stupid about taking food even if he was hungry.
However, Ma Chao did not give up. After thinking for a while, he suddenly said: "We can go grab it! Just like the last time we attacked Meiyang, grab food and grass! Uncle, right? We have soldiers and horses, just grab it!"
Han Sui looked at Ma Chao and sighed inwardly.
Young people...
But who hasn’t had a young life?
Han Sui patiently explained in detail: "It can be robbed, there is nothing wrong with it, but Meng Qi, have you ever thought about what will happen if you rob it?"
Ma Chao replied almost without thinking: "What will happen? It's not like we haven't robbed it, and it's nothing. If we robbed it, we robbed it. People in these surrounding counties don't have many soldiers, so what can they do to us?"
"
Han Sui shook his head and said: "This is the same as the other. Before we robbed Meiyang, it was because we were in a hostile state with the Guanzhong guys. Even if we did too much, there was nothing to say, but now that we have
We have made peace...if we suddenly go back on our word, we will lose our trust..."
In fact, Han Sui is not an old scholar, holding on to the so-called benevolence and righteousness. However, in his eyes, whether there are enough benefits at the moment to make him give up, loyalty is not a problem, but using these loyalty in exchange for
Whether something is worth it or not is the question.
"Xinyi?" Ma Chao frowned and muttered again.
Han Sui nodded and further explained: "If you and I want to stay in Guanzhong permanently, we need to pay more attention to the word "faithfulness"... If we get the name of unfaithfulness and injustice, I am afraid that not only Guanzhong, but also everyone in the world will
If you will be with us, you will be alone, so what can you do?"
Ma Chao lowered his head and pondered for a while, then turned to look at Han Sui and said, "But my father is dead! And we have soldiers! I want revenge!"
"Uh..." Han Sui was stunned for a long time, and finally sighed, "Okay, let me write a letter to General Xia first and explain the situation. Otherwise, the mobilization of troops and horses so close will definitely cause trouble.
He is wary and uneasy, and he also has to wait for the next batch of food and fodder to arrive. It would be better if more food, fodder, equipment, etc. could be sent over..."
…………………………
In a residence in Xiwu, several military leaders, Ma Dai and Ma Xiu were sitting together.
Ma Dai is Ma Chao's younger brother. In terms of blood, he is more inclined to Ma Chao's mother's side. In other words, like Ma Chao, he has more Qiang ancestry. It is precisely because of this that Ma Dai is now over the age of 18.
Years, but even the word has not been officially chosen.
Ma Xiu, on the other hand, has not yet been crowned, so he does not have a formal name. There is a younger brother in Wuwei's family in Xiliang, called Ma Tie. Because he is not yet ten years old, he did not follow him this time.
And among these people, pacing back and forth, was Ma Chao.
The people standing guard outside the hall were all members of Ma Chao's tribe, most of whom were Qiang people. They were all loyal warriors of the Ma family. After receiving the news that Ma Teng had been killed by Li Jue, they gathered together as soon as possible.
Now everyone has a solemn look on their face. There are even expressions of incredible surprise mixed in among them.
Although some of the nearly 3,000 men belong to Li Jue and the others, even if these troops are deducted, there are still about 1,800 men. How could they not protect Ma Teng?
In addition, these are the wealthy families in Xiliang. Everyone knows that strictly speaking, Li Jue, Guo Si and others are even lower than Ma Teng and Han Sui, because when Ma Teng, Han Sui and Dong Zhuo
When they were on equal terms, Li Jue, Guo Si and others were still obeying orders under Dong Zhuo's tent, but now...
Everyone's eyes were focused on Ma Chao's face, but Ma Chao had no expression and just kept pacing back and forth slowly in the hall.
Ma Chao sometimes looks a little stunned, but that doesn't mean Ma Chao is stupid.
The Xiliang Qiang people all get married early, and there are many people who become fathers in their early teens, but Ma Chao does not. He has not even discussed the marriage, let alone set a marriage.
Ma Teng was very poor when he was young. He was so poor that he could only go up the mountain to cut firewood to make a living. Although women in the Han Dynasty were not as money-worshipping as a certain Xiaotuo in later generations, no noble family was willing to marry their daughter to such a poor family member.
People who see no hope.
Even though Ma Teng kept insisting that he was Ma Yuan, it still didn't work, so in the end, Ma Teng had no choice but to marry a Qiang girl in the Qiang tribe, the daughter of the leader of a small branch of Shaodang Qiang.
She is also the mother of Ma Chao.
In April of the fourth year of Zhongping, Geng Bi, the governor of Liangzhou, trusted traitors, which led to the rebellion of Didao Kingdom and the Di, Qiang and other ethnic groups. The states and counties recruited warriors to suppress the rebellion. Ma Teng seized the opportunity and enlisted in the army, and soon
Because of his bravery, Kuai was valued by state and county officials, and was appointed as a military officer to lead the troops. Later, with meritorious service in battles, he was promoted to Army Sima, and later promoted to General...
The people Ma Teng took with him to join the army were members of Ma Chao's mother's clan.
Of course, as Ma Teng's status increases, many so-called successful men have to face problems.
Mistress.
Well, there was no such title in the Han Dynasty, but it was just the same thing.
Ma Teng remarried a Han woman and gave birth to Ma Xiu and Ma Tie.
As for the original Qiang wife, naturally she would stay with the Qiang people, and Ma Teng would be happy with her.
The subsequent development is naturally similar to most bloody plots. As time goes by, although Ma Chao is Ma Teng's eldest son, we can also feel that Ma Teng is paying more and more attention to Ma Xiu and Ma Tie.
…
That's why Ma Chao's mother sent Ma Dai here. In the Qiang people's concept, if you want something, you can't ask for it, so Ma Chao's mother didn't expect Ma Teng to be able to turn back the prodigal son, but after all, Ma Chao is herself
children, so they tried their best to support Ma Chao.
Therefore, the current situation is very delicate.
Ma Chao didn't say a word, but everyone felt a little strange.
For the Shaodang Qiang people sitting next to Ma Dai, Ma Chao is not only the son of Ma Teng, but more importantly, the child of his noble family, so they naturally support him fully. Although they will also feel sad about Ma Teng's death, they are more important.
Most of them are worries.
On the other side, for several people close to Ma Xiu, Ma Chao is not the best successor to the Ma family in their minds. It's just that Ma Chao is still younger and it is not convenient to formally compete.
This time Ma Teng led his troops into Chang'an. In addition to taking advantage of the situation, he also wanted to prepare to give Ma Xiu and Ma Tie a background. After all, Ma Teng said that he was the queen of Ma Yuan, but after all, he was too poor before, so he
It's not even a poor family, it's a broken family at most, so it still takes some steps to get back into the gentry system.
Ma Teng's plan was naturally good, and the progress was pretty good, but now it has failed, so where will the Ma family go in the future has become the problem they are facing now.
On weekdays, Ma Chao is always chattering and talking indiscriminately. He seems to say whatever comes to his mind. Naturally, he has never summoned people to discuss matters like this.
Ma Chao turned around a few times and finally stopped. He stood in the middle of the hall, looked around, and then said: "The current situation is like this. Do you have any ideas?"
In the past, Ma Teng was the dictator of Qiankun, basically issuing orders directly and asking everyone under him to follow the instructions, so everyone was used to it, but now looking at Ma Chao, who is young, he seems to have no independent opinions and is hesitant.
With undecided looks on their faces, some people looked at each other, exchanged glances, and then started talking.
"...The old master is so skilled in martial arts, how could he be so easy...Is there any other inside story? Could it be that the old master is not...just a fake news released by Thief Li and others?"
"This seems to make some sense, but the question now is what should we do now, should we march?"
"Young Commander, we seem to have an agreement with the people in Guanzhong. Are we going to rush into the army rashly... General Han also said that we should abide by the agreement and not tamper with it..."
"You really take this agreement seriously? It's just temporary. Everyone knows this. However, there is indeed not much food and grass now. This is also true. If you really ignore this agreement, the food and grass sent from the other side can be sent at any time.
It will break! This is a problem..."
"Although it's not a big deal to send some men to the surrounding area to collect some grass, grain, etc., it's just that there is no good stuff in the surrounding area. Is it really possible to search everywhere? I'm afraid the collected stuff is not enough to send out.
The gaps between my sons’ teeth..."
"Everyone, let me tell you, it is not a question of food and grass now, but a question of whether to march to avenge the old master! Why are you talking so nonsense..."
"What's nonsense? Don't you want to eat food and grass? Even if the old master is here, he is still considerate of you and doesn't say anything about letting him go to the battlefield on an empty stomach! I really don't know how the soldiers who followed you survived...
…”
"Hey! Did I say let my men starve? Who doesn't know that I have always been the best to my men, and I am not like a certain person who piles all the good things into his own account and never knows how to score some points?
!”
"What do you mean by sharing some! That's what I worked so hard for, with one knife and one gun! What's wrong? I'm jealous. If you want something good, go to the battlefield to get it with your knife! Staring at red eyes all day long, good stuff
Will it fall from the sky? Hehehehe..."
When one person spoke, everyone immediately spoke up, and everyone in the hall expressed their opinions. Most of Ma Teng's subordinates were Qiang people, and the etiquette was naturally a bit rough. Everyone was dancing and talking, and their voices became louder and louder.
It got bigger and bigger, and then became more and more biased, mixed with old stories of old sesame seeds and rotten millet, trying to undermine each other. Some people simply ignored Ma Chao's expression in the hall and started arguing on their own. The originally solemn hall seemed to
It turned into a pond filled with hundreds of ducks...
