In July of the first year of Zhangwu, Ma Teng surrendered to the imperial court and his troops moved to Zuofeng Yi Gaoling.

At this time, Han Sui did not know that Guan Yu was coming in person, and thought that Ma Teng would not dare to stay after his defeat, so he planned to completely give up Fufeng County, so he happily sent troops to occupy the entire Fufeng County.

This move was obviously a provocation to the authority of the imperial court. Soon the imperial envoy came to warn Han Sui and advised him to surrender to the imperial court and not to make a mistake.

Han Sui did not dare to offend Luoyang too much. Everyone in the world knew that Liu Bei had regained Hebei and his strength had become the best in the world.

Although Han Sui was king in the northwest, his hard power was not comparable to that of Luoyang. Therefore, even though he knew clearly that Duan Yan only had 20,000 troops in Chang'an City, he did not dare to go deeper for fear of causing a backlash from the imperial army.

However, Han Sui's counselor Cheng Gongying persuaded him: "Now that Liu Bei has led his army north to Youzhou, and Ma Teng has been defeated, the imperial court is unable to attack Guanzhong immediately. It can only send Duan Yan to occupy Jingzhaoyin first to prevent

The road from Guandong to Guanzhong has been cut off. If the general is determined to conquer the world, he should take this opportunity to take Guanzhong into his own hands."

Han Sui was very hesitant and said to Cheng Gongying: "I am already over fifty years old this year and will be sixty soon. Now I have not even obtained the land of three assistants. What ability do I have to conquer the world again?"

Cheng Gongying said: "Tai Gongwang was invited by King Wen to be the Grand Master when he was over seventy years old. He helped King Wu defeat Zhou when he was over ninety years old. He killed the White Snake and raised an army when he was forty-eight years old. He proclaimed himself emperor at the age of fifty-four, occupied Guanzhong, and defeated Xiang Yu in one fell swoop.

But with the big man, it is never the age that determines a person's ambition, but whether he can seize the opportunity."

Han Sui was persuaded by Cheng Gongying, so he secretly assembled his troops, and at the same time sent a large number of special forces to Jingzhao Yin to investigate Duan Xuan's military deployment, preparing to eliminate Jing Zhaoyin's court forces in one fell swoop, and then occupy the new territory that the court had established in the past two years.

When you build Tongguan, you can sit in the pass and look at the world.

In fact, in a sense, what Cheng Gongying said is right. As the saying goes, kill him while he is sick. Now both the imperial court and Ma Teng are severely weakened. Ma Teng's army was broken up by him and ran away

Left Zuo Feng Yi clinging to life.

Needless to say, the imperial court sent more than 100,000 troops north to Youzhou to attack Wuhuan, and the south was also attacking Liu Biao. For Guanzhong, this was indeed a golden opportunity.

However, from a practical point of view, even if Han Sui succeeded and successfully occupied the Guanzhong area, he would still have to compete with the imperial court for hard power in the end.

Only by fighting hard can he secure the position of King of Guanzhong. If he fails, he will either die in battle or escape back to Xiliang. There is no third way.

The reason is that great changes took place during the Guanzhong, Qin and Liu Bang periods at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

During the Qin Dynasty, the base camp was in Guanzhong. At that time, Guanzhong had the largest population and was the most prosperous. The Six Kingdoms of Shandong had never invaded the mainland of Qin, so the Guanzhong area was not damaged by war and the area was relatively stable.

Later, the King of Qin swept Liuhe and conquered the world. He moved countless wealthy households and nobles from the six countries to Xianyang, which once again enriched the population and economy of Guanzhong, making Guanzhong the first in the world at that time.

By the time Liu Bang arrived, Qin had only been dead for a few years, and Guanzhong's population and economy were still there. The three chapters of the agreement won Liu Bang's hearts and minds, and he finally left Hangu to compete with Xiang Yu for the world.

And now?

Compared with the current population in Guanzhong during Liu Bang's time, it can be said that there is only one out of ten.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion, continuous natural disasters, Dong Zhuo's Rebellion, coupled with the Xiliang Rebellion, and the occasional bandits and auxiliaries, caused a devastating blow to the population and economy of the Guanzhong area.

Under such circumstances, even if you get to Guanzhong and want to recuperate, it will take at least several decades to return to its former glory.

Therefore, people in later generations often say that if you travel through the past and conquer Guanzhong, you will surely conquer the world. In fact, it is a bit nonsense.

In ancient wars, in addition to occupying favorable terrain like the Qin State, the most important thing was population and economic strength.

The war was fought with people and money. Cao Cao returned from the Battle of Chibi with a huge defeat, but he still stood firm in the north because he had a strong foundation.

Nowadays, no one in Guanzhong has no money or food. The vast Guanzhong Plain is empty, but as far as the eye can see, it is a scene of ruins, broken houses, and thousands of miles of desolation.

As the saying goes, white bones are exposed in the wild, and there are no roosters crowing for thousands of miles. It is not an exaggeration to use this poem to describe Guanzhong at this time.

It is difficult for such a place to support the rise of a prince.

Even if Han Sui succeeds, his only possibility of victory is to occupy Tongguan and develop with peace of mind first, and then either go south to seize Hanzhong, or find ways to attract displaced people to enrich Guanzhong.

Finally, after the imperial court had solved Youzhou, Jingzhou, Henan and other places, it took the initiative to invade Guanzhong and fight to the death with Han Sui at Tongguan.

Just like the battle between Han Sui, Ma Chao and Cao Cao in Tongguan in history is the same.

But unfortunately time did not wait for me.

It will take many years for Guanzhong to return to its former glory, but the imperial court will not wait for them. As long as Youzhou and other places are pacified, they will soon be able to kill them.

Therefore, Cheng Gongying's suggestion was actually a choice made out of desperation. Among all the options, there was only one that was better.

At least there is some hope of capturing Guanzhong. If we don't capture Guanzhong, there will be no hope at all.

Soon, less than half a month later, the scouts sent out came back to report that Duan Yan's army was mainly concentrated in several cities near Chang'an City, and the number did not seem to be large.

Naturally, Han Sui didn't know that this was Jushu's strategy to show weakness to the enemy. After receiving the information, he immediately began to rectify his army and prepare to send troops to attack Chang'an.

At the beginning of August, it was the height of autumn. On the right, in the direction of Fufenghuaili, tens of thousands of troops were marching along the road toward the east.

The soldiers and horses crossed the Wei River from Xiliu Township, which later became Xianyang City, and arrived in the north of Haoxian County.

This is the north of Kunming Pool in the west of Xi'an City in later generations. Starting from Huaili and crossing the Wei River, Feng River, and Zhe River, the army only needs two days to reach the city of Chang'an.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Han Sui knew that there were defenders in Hao County, but he was too lazy to pay attention to it because Chang'an City was the main target. If he attacked Hao County first, it would alarm the enemies in Chang'an City.

If the enemy in the city is alerted at this time, it will be difficult to attack.

certainly.

Even if the enemy is alert, Chang'an City is still easy to fight.

Because this city is so big, for Han Chang'an City, which has a total city length of 25.1 kilometers and an average of four or five kilometers of city walls, there are too many places to guard, so there is no army of more than 50,000 to 60,000 people.

It is almost impossible to hold every section of the wall.

And Han Sui knew that Duan Yan only had 20,000 troops, and some of the defenders were stationed in surrounding counties. With only more than 10,000 people in the city, it was very difficult to defend the west city, not to mention that many other parts of the city walls were destroyed due to war.

Therefore, even if the people in Chang'an City were alert, Han Sui was confident that he could take over the city. The difference might be just a little troublesome.

After crossing the Feng River, Han Sui let the army rest where it was for the night.

There is a hundred miles from Huaili to Chang'an City, and the horseback riding is very fast, but the infantry starts in the morning and takes a whole day to arrive at night.

Night was not suitable for attacking the city, so Han Sui planned to rest outside Chang'an City for the night.

But he actually didn't know that his every move was controlled by Guan Yu. Therefore, when the intelligence came through that the enemy was no longer forty miles away from Chang'an City, Jushou came to find Guan Yu.

"Yun Chang, Han Sui is here."

Jushou said.

"Um."

Guan Yu was still reading. Hearing his words, he nodded: "I know."

Jushou then said: "Han Sui doesn't know we are coming. He is coming from Huaili at this time. The infantry has to travel two days. How about taking the opportunity to attack at night and destroy him in one fell swoop."

Guan Yu shook his head: "Do you know what my fourth brother told me before I came?"

Jushu was surprised and said: "Does Zigui have another countermeasure?"

Guan Yu smiled and said: "Yes, he told me that Han Sui and Ma Teng have a very high prestige among the Qiang people. If they are killed, it will be very troublesome to pacify Xiliang and easily cause Qiang chaos again. So try to kill them as much as possible."

They want to surrender. Even if these two people are not loyal, it is best to subdue them with thunderous means first, and then make plans after regaining Xiliang. If they are honest, then move to Luoyang, if they are not honest, kill them on the spot!

"

Jushu thought deeply: "Zigui has set his sights on Xiliang, but it's still so long-term. But if we don't defeat Han Sui, how will we deal with them?"

Guan Yu said: "It's not that we won't be defeated, our army is so powerful that if we attack at night, it will probably lead to a battle of annihilation. Han Sui is old, and there is a fear that he will die from swordsmanship among the rebels. By then, the Ma Teng family in Xiliang will be the dominant one, and we will

Either we have to transfer Ma Teng away and deal with Xiliang alone, or we have to let Ma Teng go. When he takes Xiliang, he may rebel again, so Han Sui has to live."

"You mean to defeat Han Sui head-on during the day and force him out of the Three Assistants?"

Jushou understood what he meant.

Guan Yu nodded: "Yes, first force him out of the Sanfu area. After our army restores the governance of Guanzhong, we will invade Xiliang. When the army is overthrown, we will send Ma Teng to convince the Qiang people not to help him.

Even if Han Sui refuses to surrender, he must surrender."

Historically, Han Sui and Ma Teng had a very good relationship with the Qiang people. Han Sui was once kind to the Qiang people. He was defeated in several battles with Cao Cao. Every time he was defeated, he hid in the Qiang tribe and then recruited them aggressively.

The Qiang people came back and became enemies of Cao Cao, which made Xiahou Yuan very annoyed. He fought for several years but could not defeat Xiliang.

Needless to say, Ma Teng was born to a Qiang woman and is half Qiang blood.

Chen Mu is familiar with the Twenty-Four Histories and has read "Three Kingdoms" and "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" several times, so he naturally remembers this matter clearly. So in order not to make the same mistake again, he embarked on Cao Cao's old path that he had fought against Xiliang for many years without defeating it.

, he did not plan to attack by force, but chose to outwit him.

To put it bluntly, Han Sui and Ma Teng's strategy was based on the people's support and high prestige in Xiliang. If you want to deal with them, you have to find other people with relatively high prestige in the minds of the Qiang people to persuade the Qiang people not to go against the imperial court.

To put it simply, it is to slowly disintegrate the popular support of these Xiliang princes. A direct attack will cause the Qiang people to rebound, but by convincing those Qiang tribes step by step, good results can be achieved.

Although it seems that forcing Han Sui to go to Xiliang is a stupid move, if there is no Ma Teng, it will naturally be easier to destroy Han Sui in one battle.

With Ma Teng, they could press forward step by step and use Ma Teng to undermine Han Sui's Qiang advantage.

same.

Just because of Ma Teng, Han Sui could not be allowed to die.

Once Han Sui died, Ma Teng became the dominant family in Xiliang, and the court would rely too much on Ma Teng's ability.

When the time comes, let him develop in Xiliang and start rebellion, which will be very annoying.

Therefore, the role of Han Sui and Ma Teng is actually to check each other. You, Han Sui, have geographical advantages and popular support, and so do I, Ma Teng.

The imperial court used Ma Teng to contain Han Sui, and it also used Han Sui to contain Ma Teng. It did not allow any one of them to become dominant, nor did it allow any one to become powerful.

What's more important is that Han Sui is already nearly sixty years old, and his energy is far inferior to that of Ma Teng, who is only in his forties.
To be continued...