As soon as Ma Chao said these words, there was a burst of laughter in the hall. Xu Chu clapped his hands and shouted: "Ma Chao, do you have a crush on someone's daughter? Tell me, and I, Lao Xu, will be your matchmaker!"
Ma Teng had a look on his face, and stood up and said, "This kid is talking nonsense. Please forgive him this time because he is young and ignorant."
Liu Xin almost burst into tears from laughter. When she heard Ma Teng's words, she felt a little embarrassed. She coughed twice and said, "Ma Chao is outspoken and outspoken, which is exactly what Liu likes. Gongtai, you don't have it right now." Problem."
In fact, Chen Gong still has doubts. Ma Chao is not a woman. Find a stable woman to take a test and you will know whether you are a virgin. Who can prove whether you are a virgin? However, Liu Xin has already said this. Everyone still couldn't stop smiling, and Chen Gong had no choice but to nod.
Liu Xin then waved his hand and said, "Degui, take this person down."
Cai Mao agreed and hurriedly went to arrange an "outside house" for Liu Xin.
Seeing that the matter was finally over, Zhao Yun breathed a sigh of relief. He cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, there are still a few horses in the courtyard."
The Xiongnu tribes had many good horses, and Zhao Yun and the others were experts in horse knowledge. The horses they could bring back as trophies were definitely not ordinary horses. Liu Xin nodded and said, "Let's go and watch together." look."
There are four horses in the yard, all of them are majestic and vigorous. Ma Chao was born in Xiliang and was particularly fond of horses, so he took the initiative to explain. Of these four horses, one is pure white and is Hu Chu. The horse Quan presented to Liu Xin was a snow-green horse with many black spots on it, which was Liu Bao's mount. The other two black horses were Yu Fuluo's mounts. When introduced to the horse, which was all black and had white hooves, Ma Chao was obviously a little reluctant to leave Wulongzhai in the snow. Wulongzhai in the snow seemed to have a good understanding of human nature. He actually lowered his head and rubbed Ma Chao's face affectionately twice.
After the spoils of war are presented, rewards will be given based on merit, and only four people, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Ma Chao and Xia Houlan, are eligible to receive direct rewards from Liu Xin.
Xia Houlan's martial arts skills were mediocre, and his accumulated merits were not enough for promotion, so Liu Xin gave him two hundred taels of silver. Of course, he would not give him cash, but two hundred taels of silver notes issued by Dahan Bank. One tael of silver was equivalent to one tael. Zhongping Tongbao costs one thousand yuan, and two hundred taels of silver is equivalent to two hundred thousand yuan, which is a lot of wealth.
Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong were both army commanders and could not be promoted in official positions. Liu Xin each gave them a thousand taels of silver. However, Liu Xin said: "BMWs are given to heroes, and Liu will not go into battle to fight, so he wants those horses." It’s useless. Zilong, I’ll give you that white horse, Han Sheng, that snow-green horse will be yours.”
As a military general, no one wants to own a divine horse. Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong were both overjoyed and thanked them repeatedly. However, Zhang Fei jumped up from his chair and shouted: "Brother, give me one too." match."
Liu Xin frowned and said: "Third brother, you didn't participate in this expedition, so you won't get any credit. If I gave the horse to you, others might have objections."
Zhang Fei said disapprovingly: "Brother, what are you talking about? These horses belong to me now. I can give them to whomever I want. I am my brother. If my brother gave me the horses, who will make irresponsible remarks?"
He didn't even think about it, Liu Xin had more than one sworn brother. Except for Zhang He who was still in Jiangnan and hadn't come back, Xu Huang, Dian Wei, and Xu Chuke were all here.
Xu Huang stood up and said: "To inform my lord, my third brother has also made many achievements, so I would like to ask my lord to give him a good horse. In the end, Zhong Kang will have no objection to evil."
In fact, Dian Wei and Xu Chu were also jealous, but before they had time to speak, Zhang Fei got the first step, and now they were blocked by Xu Huang, so they could only stare.
Why doesn't Xu Huang himself want a good horse? They are all generals who are going through life and death on the battlefield. War horses are their partners. A good horse can not only improve their combat effectiveness, but can even determine their life or death. But
, Xu Huang didn’t want to embarrass Liu Xin, so he took the initiative to come to his rescue.
Liu Xin naturally understood what Xu Huang meant, nodded and said: "Since the second brother has said so, then third brother, you go and pick one yourself."
The two horses were both black horses, but one was completely black and the other had white hooves. Zhang Fei chose the black horse without hesitation, and said cheerfully: "I am black, so I deserve this."
A black horse, just the right pair, it should be mine!"
It made everyone laugh again.
Liu Xin raised her hand to stop everyone's laughter and said: "Ma Chao,..."
But Chen Gong stood up, cupped his hands and said, "This is to inform my lord, my lord stayed in the Huns king's tent at night. He is treasonous and immoral, and I think he should be severely punished!"
As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly became solemn. Ma Teng glanced at his precious son and felt as if he hated iron. Lin San had already reported to Ma Teng everything that happened on the Xiongnu grassland.
Staying in the Hun king's tent, leaving the Hun chanyu's women in the tent, and not sending troops to reinforce Shangguan, these three things are taboos in the officialdom. Ma Teng was careful from the moment he entered the hall, not knowing when these things would happen
Explosion. Just now, the matter of leaving the Xiongnu Chanyu's woman in the tent was finally solved, but it was still difficult to explain why he stayed overnight in the Xiongnu king's tent.
If Chen Gong remained silent today, Liu Xin really planned to pretend to be confused, but who would have thought that if he remained silent, he would not be Chen Gong. Liu Xin could only ponder for a moment and asked: "Gongtai, in your opinion, how should we handle it?"
?”
Chen Gong is a man of his word. He had already agreed to Liu Xin's advice that day, so he would not be too embarrassed anymore, so he clasped his fists and said: "Back to my lord, my subordinates think that the reason why Ma Chao did such a treasonous thing is
It's all because he is young and ignorant, so we don't need to investigate further. All we need to do is remove him from his official position and demote him to a foot soldier!"
As soon as these words came out, Ma Chao was furious. He wanted to achieve great success and be promoted to a higher position. Now, not only was there no hope of promotion, but he was also reduced to a foot soldier, which was so embarrassing for him. Ma Chao clenched his fists and his eyes were round.
He opened his eyes and stared at Chen Gong. Facing the strong murderous aura exuded by Ma Chao, Chen Gong was not afraid at all and even smiled at him. Ma Chao was so angry that he really wanted to curse, but in front of so many people, he couldn't
Don't dare to be presumptuous.
Zhao Yun quickly stood up and said: "My lord, this time on the grassland, he knew that Yu Fuluo had sent people to attack Huchuquan, but he was able to size up the situation and hold the camp firmly without sending troops rashly. This calmness alone is enough to show that
He has the talent of a general. And this time, Ma Chao has indeed made great achievements. Please allow him to make up for his merits because of his youth and ignorance."
In Ma Teng's opinion, this matter was a big taboo in officialdom, but Zhao Yun and Chen Gong were not ordinary people, so they naturally saw it very clearly and knew that Ma Chao was right to do this.
Before Liu Xin could answer, Chen Gong had already said: "Gong is merit, and fault is fault. How can they be offset? My lord, please judge impartially!"
Liu Xin sighed and said: "Ma Chao, Mr. Liu also knows that you are brave and good at fighting, but what the public platform said is true. If you have merit, you will be rewarded, and if you make mistakes, you will be punished. You can only follow the orders and prohibitions. In this way, Liu will order you to be exempted now.
Given the position of general, do you choose to be an infantryman or to retire?"
The expression on Ma Chao's face changed, and it seemed difficult to make a decision. After a long time, he finally gritted his teeth and said, "In that case, Ma will just quit the army!"
Ma Teng said angrily: "You traitor! You, you, make me so angry!"
Liu Xin's words just now were very clear. Those who have merit will be rewarded, and those who have committed mistakes will be punished. With Ma Teng's experience of fighting for so many years, Liu Xin seems to be intending to excuse Ma Chao. Moreover, the three crimes he has been worried about today
, the first crime has been uncovered, and the third crime has been turned into merit by Zhao Yun. Now only the second crime is left, which can be completely offset by Ma Chao's several merits. Even if merit cannot be used now
With his achievements, it was not impossible for him to be promoted from an infantryman to a general. However, Ma Chao actually chose to retire, so there was no hope for him.
Ma Chao is a very proud person, and his Ma family is considered a powerful force in Xiliang. When Ma Teng took the initiative to join Liu Xin, he was not willing to do so. But the situation was stronger than the people. If he did not choose to join Liu Xin at that time, the Ma family would have faced him head-on.
The Han army's brutal attack led to the same fate as Han Sui. You must know that Han Sui's strength at that time was much greater than that of the Ma family.
However, Ma Chao was still unwilling to give in. Even if he could not become the overlord of one party, the person who assisted him should be a wise master, or at least have a broad mind. He stayed overnight in the Huns king's tent and left Yu Fuluo's woman behind, just to
Testing Liu Xin's attitude towards him, he didn't expect that Liu Xin really believed Chen Gong's "slander" and became suspicious of him. So what else did he have to be nostalgic about, so he just retired from the army.
"Shou Cheng, this is not the place for you to teach your son a lesson." Liu Xin waved her hand to stop the aggrieved Ma Teng, turned to Ma Chao and said, "Ma Chao, Liu respects your choice and will ask the Ministry of War to cancel your military status soon.
From now on, you are just an ordinary citizen."
Ma Chao snorted and didn't answer. He just looked at Liu Xin coldly.
Liu Xin saw that his expression was not kind, but did not take it seriously, and continued: "However, you still have to be rewarded for your contribution. You successively attacked Liu Bao's and Yu Fuluo's tribes, which played a decisive role in the entire battlefield. These two
Each meritorious service will be rewarded with one thousand taels of silver."
There was a burst of praise in the hall. Such a reward was not generous. Even Zhao Yun, as the commander-in-chief of the army, only received a reward of one thousand taels of silver. It seemed that this was Liu Xin's response to Ma Chao's dismissal.
compensated.
But Ma Chao had a look of disdain on his face. Although such a reward was rich, his ambition was to fly across the world, so how could he care about these yellow and white things. There is no place for me to stay here, but there is a place for me to stay. Ma Chao has already begun to have ambitions.
.
But I heard Liu Xin say again: "In addition to these two achievements, Ma Chao's forced death by Fuluo is also a great achievement and deserves a heavy reward."