Chapter 375: Different Paths in Tang History

The celebration banquet lasted until late, especially after the sudden appearance of Ma Chao, the protagonist, the atmosphere became even more lively.

Although it was the first time to meet in person, Ma Chao played the role of being open and honest. During the banquet, he kept telling Liu Bei how to capture Zhang He.

For Liu Bei, Ma Chao used the most complicated language to tell the simplest thing.

Zhang He was worn out to death.

After the defeat at Jieting and the fall of Chencang, Zhang He's baggage had been lost, and the hidden danger of insufficient food and grass gradually began to emerge.

Then Ma Chao led the Qiang cavalry to chase all the way. Zhang He had no choice but to run, and the supplies could only be obtained by looting along the way.

The two sides chased and fled, from Yong County to Duyang, then to Yinmi, then to Que Gu (pronounced the same as Gu), and then to Linjing. In the end, they almost ran all the way to Yuezhi City. Zhang He was finally captured because his food and grass were exhausted.

Of course, Ma Chao was not having an easy time either. Just look at the ferocious way he ate meat, and you can tell what kind of life he had lived in the past month.

Liu Bei pulled his personal soldiers over and ordered:

"Go and give Zhang He a portion of food, and treat him well."

Watching the backs of the personal soldiers leaving, Liu Bei also relaxed and personally poured a glass of wine for Ma Chao.

This move made Ma Chao flattered. He held the wine cup in one hand, not knowing whether to drink it, and the other hand was still holding half a roast chicken reluctantly.

However, Ma Chao also remembered Mr. Jian's previous earnest teachings, and said with his heart:

"Chang'an is a huge city, and Lord Xuande conquered it in a few days. It's really a divine power!"

This was said sincerely. For Qiang and Hu, attacking a city has always been a difficult problem. For example, the previous 100,000 coalition forces resisted Cao and also bypassed Chang'an to resist in Tongguan.

Liu Bei smiled, raised the wine cup in his hand to indicate, and drank a cup with Ma Chao.

At the same time, he was also thinking about whether Yide and Shiyuan would be able to pacify Hedong smoothly.

Hedong is a vital part of Guanzhong, so it has to be managed. But the terrain is not important, so few people have invested much energy in managing Hedong before.

The Hedong army was among the 100,000 coalition forces that resisted Cao Cao in Tongguan before. After the defeat, Han Sui and Ma Chao fled west, and the Hedong army surrendered to Cao Cao in name.

Now that Liu Bei is the hegemon and wants to govern Guanzhong, he naturally has to have a good talk with the Hedong commander.

"I heard that the lord also captured Xiahou Yuan?" Ma Chao looked admiring.

Liu Bei shook his head: "It was because his subordinates wanted to surrender, so he tied him up."

"I have written to Cao Cao, wanting to exchange Xiahou Yuan for Yizhou warriors."

"Yizhou warriors?" Ma Chao was confused, not understanding what this had to do with Cao Cao.

So Liu Bei sighed and slowly told the story of Liu Zhang giving soldiers to Cao Cao a few years ago, and the parents of these warriors were all in Chengdu waiting for their beloved sons to return to Shu.

This simple matter made Ma Chao silent for a long time. Finally, this man who had almost lost weight after a month of hard pursuit but still had the heroic temperament knelt on the ground:

"Please save my father, lord. ̢̜̳̱͈̹͓͛͜ḩ̷̻̩͍̱̗͔̺̏̓͊̀͂̀ͅṵ̵̙̻͉̦͙̗̥̉̓̓͊̑̂̑x̸͍̘̳͂͊̂̊̀͊̕͘.̷̹̦̆̆c̶͙͈͚̽̄̈̎̒͜o̶͝ ̧̧̝̳̠͇͕̺̲̹́̔̈́̃͝m̷̗͓̽̂̌̋̃̌”

Before the Battle of Tongguan, Ma Chao received several letters from Liu Bei, but at that time he was ambitious and planned to let all heroes in the world know Ma Chao's name. The only thing he listened to Liu Bei's advice was not to worship Han Sui as his adoptive father on the spot.

But in the end, he was still severely educated by reality. He had his own ideas and Han Sui had his own demands. The 100,000 coalition forces were defeated overnight and fled west in panic.

Later, Jian Yong came here and learned His profound conversation is impressive, and his elegant manner and persuasive reasoning are good.

Lu Bu's notoriety has become the best example for Jian Yong to reason with, and Ma Chao has also had a clear understanding of his dilemma:

He can give up his biological father, but he must not bear the reputation of being unfilial.

And now Ma Chao has found the best solution to this matter: ask Lord Xuande to come forward.

Jian Yong and Liu Bei smiled at each other. Ma Chao's sharp blade can hurt others if used well, and hurt himself if used poorly. But fortunately, it has been polished to a just right degree now.

Ma Chao belongs to Liu Bei, and has a record of war. Han Sui has already left, and Yongliang is as solid as Mount Tai.

In this case, Cao Cao's reckless killing of Ma Teng will do more harm than good. If he adds the prisoners in his hands to exchange, Ma Teng's life should be safe, and this alone is enough.

So Liu Bei became more and more amiable:

"Meng Qi, please get up. You have just made great contributions. This matter is my responsibility. "

Ma Chao breathed a sigh of relief and secretly glanced at Mr. Jian. He happened to see Mr. Jian giving him a thumbs up, so he couldn't help but feel a little excited, and his heart was completely relieved.

The returning Ma Chao was soon given a new responsibility by Liu Bei: raising horses.

The 800-li Qinchuan is rich in water and grass. Those near the city are all good farms, and those far away are also good horse farms.

Qiang and Hu know horses, so there are many good horse breeders. Liu Bei asked Ma Chao to select those who are good at raising horses to set up a new horse farm.

And he will send someone to sort out the means, regulations and precautions of raising horses later.

A few days later, Zhang Fei and Pang Tong also returned and brought back the families of the generals in Hedong.

Facing Liu Bei's army, the generals in Hedong naturally swore that they had surrendered to Cao Cao before but just pretended to be submissive.

Zhang Fei believed it, and then put forward a very simple condition: just hold his wife hostage in Chang'an.

Choose a troublemaker and destroy him with thunder and lightning, and the rest will go smoothly.

Although Liu Bei didn't like this method, he also knew that facing the generals in Hedong who were no different from bandits and bandits, there was no other more suitable method for the time being.

In the final analysis, it was still because of the lack of manpower, Liu Bei lamented.

Since he was in Gong'an, he has been trying his best to cultivate talents, but the speed of cultivating good talents obviously cannot keep up with the speed of expanding the territory, which can be regarded as a happy trouble.

So at the end of April, Liu Bei and others hid in the Chang'an government office, intending to use the reading light curtain as the best entertainment in the middle of the war.

Ma Chao, who was here for the first time, was full of freshness. He felt that there were really many talents under Lord Xuande - including him, Ma Mengqi, of course.

And compared with Cao Cao's place, the atmosphere was much more relaxed, but what were they waiting for sitting here? Ma Chao was puzzled.

Besides, why did this group of people turn their eyes to him after reading Zhuge Military Advisor?

Ma Chao was full of suspicion.

...

Chang'an City, November.

After seeing Li Jing off, Li Shimin was a little nervous.

He was not nervous about Tuyuhun, who were just ignorant chickens and pottery dogs. With the advantage of maps, gunpowder as a trump card, and fierce generals raiding the battlefield, Li Shimin didn't know how to write the word "death" for Tuyuhun.

But Li Shimin also knew in his heart that compared with the history in the light curtain, the time to pacify Jie Li was only half a year, so it was not a big problem.

But the battle of Tuyuhun was forcibly brought forward by nearly five years. After this battle, the Tang Dynasty would embark on a completely different path from the history in the light curtain.

It is now November in winter, but there is still no snow falling. Li Shimin's head directly popped up the words about climate in later generations.

He also thought of the biggest beneficiary of such a climate:

"Tubo..."