Summary of the previous chapter: Ma Xiaoquan made a bet with Yuan. The bet was to test whether Liu Xie, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, still had the determination to eliminate Cao Cao even though he had no strength. After talking with Liu Xie, Ma Xiaoquan regretfully learned that Liu Xie
The determination was defeated by Yuan without any suspense...
In June 213 AD, the 18th year of Emperor Xian's reign of the Han Dynasty, Ma Chao, who had never been cared about by Cao Cao, made a comeback.
Due to his Qiang and Hu ancestry and the rest period of nearly half a year, Ma Chao conquered the counties in Longshang vigorously. That month, Ma Chao took advantage of the victory and continued to attack, surrounding the key point of Jicheng established by Cao Cao in Liangzhou.
We must conquer Jicheng.
In early July, Jicheng, which had been holding on for a long time, could not hold it anymore. Wei Kang, the then governor, sent Liang Wen out of the city to ask for help from Xia Houyuan. Faced with the heavy siege by Ma Chao's army, Liang Wen decisively chose to swim by water. Unfortunately,
, Ma Chao quickly saw through Liang Wen's escape strategy, followed the watermarks left behind, and caught Liang Wen.
As the saying goes, to destroy a person first, destroy the heart. Ma Chao did not kill Liang Wen, but dragged him to Jicheng to force him to surrender. Unexpectedly, Liang Wen would rather die than surrender. Ma Chao killed Liang Wen in anger and declared that if he conquered Jicheng, he would not surrender.
The city must be massacred.
After the governor Wei Kang received the news, he was heartbroken and opened the door to surrender despite the strong opposition of his subordinate Yang Fu. However, Ma Chao did not fulfill his promise to massacre the city when he entered the city. In addition to killing several surrender factions such as the weak-minded Wei Kang,
Yang Fu, who had always been against him, was forced by Ma Chao to "surrender".
In mid-July, Ma Chao claimed to be the General of the Conquest of the West and the governor of the state...
In Yecheng, Cao Cao had long received the news that Ma Chao was stirring up trouble in Liangzhou, but he was unable to take any major action to suppress Ma Chao due to lack of resources.
One night, Cao Cao personally went to the Ma family compound to visit Master Shangxian Ma Xiaoquan and asked Master Shangxian for some advice.
Ma Xiaoquan had already made this judgment, and when Cao Cao entered the Ma family compound, he handed the two tips to Cao Cao.
"Lord Immortal, you are..."
"This is a clever tip that I have given you. Well, one is for you, and the other is for Xia Houyuan."
Cao Cao nodded and took the bag from Ma Xiaoquan's hand, then stood up and left.
When he went back and unpacked the bag of tips given to him by Master Shangxian, Cao Cao immediately picked up his pen and sent an order.
At the same time, Cao Cao also ordered people to send the tip bag that Master Shangxian gave to Xia Houyuan to Chang'an as quickly as possible.
In mid-to-late July, Xia Houyuan received a secret order from his lord Cao Cao, and along with him came a tip bag from Lord Shangxian.
After reading through the lord's order, Xia Houyuan immediately opened the brocade bag and took out a white silk scroll from the brocade bag.
"Yes." After reading the content on the white silk scroll, Xia Houyuan nodded heavily.
A deputy general next to him saw Xia Houyuan's serious expression and asked curiously: "General, what is written on this white silk?"
Xia Houyuan smiled and handed the white silk scroll to the deputy general: "Let me show you!"
The deputy general took the white silk scroll, glanced at it, and said confusedly: "Attack and retreat, victory or defeat is freely determined? What does this mean? General, what do you mean, lord?"
Xia Houyuan thought for a moment and said: "My lord has good military skills. He ordered us to set out immediately to rescue Jicheng and attack Ma Chao..."
The lieutenant general said: "But, what is written on the white silk silk of Master Shangxian does mean to attack and retreat? General, what do you mean..."
Xia Houyuan waved his hand: "Stop this matter for the time being. Give me the order and everyone is ready to march to Jicheng."
"yes!"
...
The news of Xia Houyuan's coming to rescue did not go unnoticed by Ma Chao's careful work. When Xia Houyuan's army was still two hundred miles away from Jicheng, Ma Chao, who had been prepared for long time, personally led the army to fight.
Since the number of troops was not as large as that of Ma Chao's army, and many of the marching soldiers were tired, Xia Houyuan was defeated without any suspense in this encounter. However, Xia Houyuan was not defeated badly, and the losses were not too great.
Ma Chao originally thought that Xia Houyuan would fight him to the death, but he didn't expect that Xia Houyuan did not hesitate at all. After being defeated by him, he led his army to retreat without looking back. This made Ma Chao really depressed.
Ma Chao knew very well that if he gave Xia Houyuan a few days to rectify, he would not defeat him so easily. First of all, from a strategic point of view, Xia Houyuan would be stronger than him, and... what worried Ma Chao the most was this
the aspirations of the people on this land.
Ma Chao's worries are not unreasonable, but he is confident that as long as he gives himself more time, he will completely calm this land.
On the other hand, during the encounter with Xia Houyuan, the wife of Cao General Yang Fu, who was forced to "surrender" by Xia Houyuan, died in the rebellion.
Yang Fu was very sad and told Ma Chao that he was going to bury his wife.
Ma Chao had no doubts and let Yang Fu go back to his hometown.
Yang Fu did not go directly back to his hometown to bury his wife, but took a detour to Licheng and met his cousin Jiang Xu.
Jiang Xu and Yang Fu had a very good relationship. When Jiang Xu heard Yang Fu's cry, Jiang Xu was very hesitant. Seeing her son's hesitation, Jiang Xu's mother immediately expressed her determination to her son that she was not afraid of death and asked her son to plot against Ma Chao.
With his mother's support, Jiang Xu, Yang Fu and others immediately summoned Zhao Ang, Yin Feng and others, and secretly asked Liang Kuan, Zhao Qu and others in Hebei City to serve as internal agents.
While Jiang Xu, Yang Fu and others were plotting, Xia Houyuan, who was strategically retreating, finally understood the meaning of Master Shangxian giving him the tips. After thinking about it, Xia Houyuan couldn't help laughing.
The lieutenants around him saw Xia Houyuan laughing and were puzzled. Xia Houyuan smiled and explained: "Do you remember that when my lord newly entered Yanzhou, he encountered repeated rebellions?"
The lieutenants nodded.
Xia Houyuan continued: "When my lord killed Bian Rang, the situation in Yanzhou was really tense. But later, my lord killed Kong Rong, but nothing happened. Why is this? Do you know?"
The lieutenants shook their heads.
Xia Houyuan smiled and said: "Because Yanzhou has been branded as the lord, hum!"
Xia Houyuan explained it like this, and the lieutenants immediately understood.
"General, do you mean to say that Ma Chao will fail without us having to worry too much?"
Xia Houyuan nodded, then shook his head: "This is what I understand, but I don't know what Master Shangxian means. Now, I can only wait..."
...
Yecheng, in the Ma family compound.
"Ah Sneeze" Ma Xiaoquan rubbed his nose and murmured, "Why is it that someone keeps talking about me?"
Beside Ma Xiaoquan, Qing Yi brought a piece of sliced apple to Ma Xiaoquan's mouth and stuffed it in before Ma Xiaoquan could react.
"Just eat it, there are so many people talking about you, you are so beautiful..."
Ma Xiaoquan chuckled, hugged Qing Yi into his arms, reached into Qing Yi's lapel and pinched twice.
Qing Yi gave a shy ahh, and bursts of blush immediately appeared on her pretty face.
"Ms. sir, you're annoying!" Qing Yi twisted away from Ma Xiaoquan's arms and said with a blushing face, "My son is next to me, you...you..."
Ma Xiaoquan chuckled, scratched his scalp, turned around and saw his son Ma Qiang looking at him with his big eyes blinking.
Ma Qiang is Ma Xiaoquan's fourth son, born to him and Qing Yi.
In addition to practicing martial arts with his eldest brother Ma Xiaoyi, Ma Qiang's most important thing is to learn the culture and language of the Baiyi tribe with his mother Qingyi, and help his mother organize the literature and materials of the Baiyi tribe.
The nine sons of the dragon are all different. Although Ma Xiaoquan's sons are not among the dragons, in Ma Xiaoquan's eyes, all of them are excellent.
Under the strict guidance of his mother Diao Chan, the eldest son Ma Xiao is only thirteen years old, but he is the most calm among the brothers and sisters.
The second son, Ma Kun, was born to Ma Xiaoquan and Ling'er. Compared with his eldest brother, Ma Kun prefers the little one! Said.
The third son, Ma Zheng...has no exact whereabouts so far, but Ma Xiaoquan believes that he will definitely come back.
"Dad" Ma Qiang's voice brought Ma Xiaoquan back from his deep thought.
Ma Xiaoquan raised his head and patted his son on the head: "You brat, you have grown so big, haha..."
Qing Yi rolled his eyes at Ma Xiaoquan: "You are not a good father at all. You are always running away. Tell me... how many times have you taught Qiang'er since he was born?"
Ma Xiaoquan: "..."
Qing Yi said again: "You bad guy, Sister Yue'er said, you are an unfit father."
Ma Xiaoquan chuckled, forced Qing Yi into his arms, and said: "Who said I am incompetent? Ask Qiang'er, how did I teach them?"
Qing Yi curled her lips, looked at Ma Qiang with a look of disbelief, and asked: "Qiang'er, how does your father usually teach you?"
When Ma Qiang heard his mother ask him, he immediately stood at attention with a standard military posture and said: "Dad said, a man should look like a man. First... he must dare to take responsibility. Second, he must dare to
Say no, and thirdly, you must be worthy of your women, protect them and love them..."
Qing Yi was stunned for a moment, then slapped Ma Xiaoquan on the back of the head and said angrily: "What I said earlier is not bad, this child is still young, why are you teaching women to be unfeminine?"